THE SNP have hit out at Unionist parties who refused to reveal their membership numbers – accusing them of “hypocrisy”.
Keith Brown said the SNP’s pro-UK opponents were “as transparent as a lump of coal” after we revealed no Unionist party in Holyrood would disclose the extent of their memberships.
We received no response from the Scottish LibDems or Scottish Labour when we asked for their membership numbers on Monday. A Scottish Tory spokesperson said the party did not publicise the data.
The Scottish Greens said they had 7646 and Alba said they would provide up-to-date figures at their spring conference next month. It is thought the party have in the region of 7000 members.
The SNP have now called on Unionist parties to reveal how many members they have, with Brown telling his opponents “it is not one rule for them and another for everyone else”.
The party said its membership currently stood at 74,889 members – up from the 72,186 reported at the beginning of March.
He told The National: “The level of hypocrisy of this is absolutely flabbergasting - after spending the best part of 2 months calling for more transparency, it appears the Scottish Tories, Scottish Labour and Scottish Lib Dems are about as transparent as a lump of coal.
“It's time for Douglas Ross, Anas Sarwar and Alex Cole-Hamilton to accept that it is not one rule for them and another for everyone else.
"The SNP is absolutely committed to being as open and transparent as possible - and that is why we are taking forward work to identify where we can improve on this too.
"But, if any of the three self-righteous parties want to cling on to a shred of integrity then they should share their parties membership numbers with people across Scotland - if they don't then it begs the question, what have they got to hide?"
The Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Labour and the Scottish LibDems were approached for comment.
