Ian Blackford has dismissed reports he is to step down as SNP Westminster leader as “utter nonsense”.
The SNP group leader at Westminster laughed off the suggestion there was a pincer movement against him by senior SNP MPs Alyn Smith and Stewart McDonald.
Both the MPs contacted early on Thursday issued similar denials with McDonald describing the report as "junk".
Speaking at Heathrow airport on the way to his Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency, Blackford said talk of him giving up the leadership was “total crap”.
He said: ”I have got a job to do leading the group I am fully focused on doing so and I intend to lead us through all the challenges we face and to stand by the side of the First Minister ready for the campaign ahead.”
Blackford has led the SNP group in Westminster since 2017 and features regularly at Prime Minister's Questions as leader of the third party in the Commons.
He added: “I am relaxed about things, I have no intention of going anywhere."
Blackford spoke after an online report suggested that “he may be preparing to ditch his role” as SNP Westminster leader following a bout of infighting in the 45-strong SNP grouping in the Commons.
The claims focus on the joint work Defence spokesman Stewart McDonald MP and Foreign Affairs spokesman Alyn Smith MP have been involved in over Ukraine and wider international affairs.
Both are seen as possible successors to Blackford who was viewed to have dug himself into a hole on potential pension payments after independence and appeared cool on the prospects for a 2023 referendum Nicola Sturgeon has planned.
Smith, the SNP Foreign Affairs spokesman named as a conspirator against Blackford, also said the reports were “utter garbage” and used stronger language as well.
He said: “Stewart McDonald and I have a plan of what we want to do with foreign affairs and defence, we have hired joint staff and we are keeping the group and the leader up to date on Ukraine which is all-consuming. But some people can’t see joint working without attributing an ulterior motive.
“We’re doing the jobs Ian asked us to do with Ian’s enthusiastic support. It is utter fiction to think otherwise and annoyingly these bumping gums keep coming up with this tiresome story.”
Labour's Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray claimed the SNP is in disarray at Westminster.
He said “Ian Blackford’s ridiculous claims on pensions in an independent Scotland have been thoroughly debunked, and now even his own MPs can see that he was wrong.
“The SNP has refused to back Labour’s plan for a windfall tax on the enormous profits of oil companies, and it now seems they are entering a civil war."
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