STEPHEN Flynn has said he thinks Nicola Sturgeon “made a mistake” publishing comments on the SNP's campaign strategy in the foreword of her book.
Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe event the Political Party with Matt Forde, the former Westminster leader was asked about the comments which were published at the beginning of the month in the paperback edition of Sturgeon’s memoir, Frankly.
Sturgeon said the SNP’s Holyrood election campaign had “a lack of vision or big picture thinking”. She went on to say that the Scottish Greens, who are also pro-independence and took key seats from the SNP like Edinburgh Central and Sturgeon's former seat of Glasgow Southside, were the party that “came closest to injecting a sense of hope” into Scottish politics ahead of the May election.
Her comments also criticised the SNP's recent shift in favour of the oil and gas industry, writing that it would be a “massive electoral blunder…for the SNP to soften its left-of-centre environmentalist credentials”.
In response, Flynn said the comments were: “A little bit frustrating because you’re trying to get on and deliver, and there’s there’s a distraction here which is being created.”
He continued that he agrees that the former first ministers should add to the debate on political issues but that Sturgeons recent comments were a “mistake”.
He said: “Given what they experienced in their position as first minister, it’s vital actually that they partake in that ongoing set of debates about what society looks like and how we deliver that positive future in politics.
“But I think when you’re doing that, you do it in a constructive fashion.
“I’ve made mistakes at points over the course of the last couple of years in the way that I’ve approached things and I’ve reflected on that, and I think we all do certain things…I think Nicola made a mistake in this context as well.
“But that shouldn’t detract from the value of her input into political debate going forward.”
Flynn, who was appointed as the Economy, Tourism and Transport Secretary in John Swinney's new cabinet, was also asked if Sturgeon’s departure from the party and her recent comments had affected the party's relationship with the former first minister and if senior officials were “annoyed” with her lack of support.
He said: “I think they were more frustrated than anything else because they didn’t they didn’t necessarily see it as constructive in the way that I’ve tried to to present there because they want to hear what Nicola Sturgeon has to say, I want to hear what Nicola has to say because she’s incredibly good at politics and she was incredibly successful.
“But if you’re going to do it pick your way to do it, and I would think that she would probably regard it as a misstep.”
After the release of Sturgeon's foreword, the Scottish Greens offered her a place in the party, praising her leadership of the SNP after she brought key issues like climate policy to the forefront of party policy.
Writing in The National, co-leader Gillian Mackay said: "When Nicola became the first SNP leader to oppose new oil and gas drilling, she set an important precedent at a time when the climate crisis demanded political courage.
“Now we see an SNP Government hedging its bets by trying to squeeze more life from a finite oil and gas industry, despite the science and despite Scotland’s enormous opportunity to lead the renewables revolution.”
She added: “Since Nicola left office and we left government, that kind of bold, ambitious policy-making has slipped into reverse. Yet hope matters not only for politics but for building support for independence.
“Support for Scotland’s right to choose will only grow if and when people can picture a different country and see us working to build it: a fairer Scotland without nuclear weapons on the Clyde, back in Europe, and able to build an economy that puts people before profit.
“That is the hopeful case the Scottish Greens took into this election, and the one Nicola has alluded to in her comments.”
