FIGURES within the SNP have urged caution around reforms to the party’s internal structures – despite a row over their finances and governance.
The Sunday National understands that changes to the SNP’s internal structures will be considered as part of the governance and transparency review agreed to by the National Executive Committee (NEC) on Saturday.
However, two MPs said they were not comfortable with the party instituting internal reforms in reaction to the police investigation – despite having oven-ready recommendations the SNP could implement to improve its financial transparency and internal democracy.
One was authored by deputy leader Keith Brown in 2021 and recommended improving and formalising the party’s accounting processes.
Alyn Smith also previously put forward proposals to streamline the party’s ruling body and introduce measures to hold it to account.
Both issues have come to the fore in recent weeks amid an ongoing police investigation into the SNP’s finances – a revelation which appeared to shock even those ostensibly at the top of the party’s governing body: the NEC.
But one SNP MP told the Sunday National now was not the time for a “knee-jerk” reaction to the police investigation, arguing the party should hold off on reforms until the police probe wrapped up, a process which could take months or even years.
They said: “I do think there is a case for the party to improve its constitution but I don’t think you do that in response to a police investigation, so my preference would be that somebody somewhere tells us what the hell this is all about, that we deal with it and in the autumn we have an efficient constitutional review.
“Shouldn’t take any longer than six months to have a branch and member consultation and we look at a more grassroots-focused party, a more efficient decision-making structure that allows member engagement at all levels.”
Another said there was a strong case for reforming the party – but they were reluctant to put their head above the parapet.
The MP said: “If Humza is committed to an overhaul of the governance of the party – what does that look like?
“There was a lack of oversight [from the NEC] and that needs to be fixed. There is a thing about the governance of the party that needs to be looked at – and I am an uber-loyalist.
"Good, bad or indifferent I am loyal to the leadership of my party whoever they are, whoever they’ve been…
“I’m not saying that any time soon. Until the cops have done the investigation, I’d just march myself up to the top of the hill.”
But a third MP told the Sunday National the party must press ahead with reforms “straight away”.
They said: “I think we do it straight away, I don’t think it relates to the police investigation, it relates to the governance of the SNP to make it more transparent and answerable to its members.”
They said there was a problem with overrepresentation on the NEC and pointed to its structure which allows members of groups representing LGBT people or those from a minority ethnic background onto the board without being elected.
The MP added: “Some groups are overrepresented – it used to be a very open and transparent organisation with only elected members on the NEC – but people were appointed on it and people were allowed to have substitutes if they weren’t able to make it, who weren’t necessarily elected by the members, some of whom have particularly strong views on some issues.
“The concern I have is that they’re unelected, I don’t have any issue with underrepresented groups being there at the table but they should come through the same route as every other member of the NEC: by election.”
Smith was fiercely criticised in 2020 when he raised concerns about the make-up of the NEC calling the group “unwieldy” and incapable of effective oversight because of its size.
In an email to Kirsten Oswald, a powerful figure within the SNP, he said: “I am not alone in thinking that too much of the party’s oxygen has been taken up by discussion of peripheral issues like [Gender Recognition Act] reform, with a small but vocal number of NEC members focusing on these peripheral issues, however worthy, to the exclusion of all else.”
But he was accused of wanting to boot minorities and overrepresented groups from the top table.
