THE SNP will elect a new national secretary at conference as the incumbent leaves the role, the finalised agenda has revealed.
Lorna Finn, who has served as the SNP’s national secretary since being elected to replace former MSP Stewart Stevenson in November 2021, does not appear on the ballot.
Instead four new contenders will stand for the top position: Michael Gregori, John Haston, Alex Kerr, and Adam Nols-McVey.
Nols-McVey is a councillor in Edinburgh and a former council leader for the SNP, while Kerr is a councillor in Glasgow. Haston stood for the SNP in Falkirk in the 2022 council elections but did not win a seat.
Elsewhere, the finalised SNP conference handbook has revealed that just two contenders have put themselves forward to be the next party president: Graeme McCormick and Maureen Watt.
The role has been empty since former constitution secretary Michael Russell left in December 2023 in order to take up an apolitical position at the Scottish Land Commission.
McCormick had stood against Russell in the 2023 conference elections, while Watt was the MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine from 2011 to 2021.
The finalised SNP agenda also shows that former MP Stuart McDonald will stand unopposed to remain as party treasurer.
Former MPs Deidre Brock and Anum Qaisar are running against each other in a bid to become the SNP’s next policy development convener.
The SNP agenda states that “all delegates with an email address on the membership system will be sent a link containing their voting code when conference opens at 10am on Friday 30 August, allowing them to vote using their own devices”.
Voting will then run for just over 48 hours, closing at 10.15am on Sunday, September 1.
Finn has been the SNP’s national secretary through both of the recent two leadership contests, although the second ended in John Swinney’s coronation.
According to her LinkedIn, she has also been Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee’s constituency office manager since 2016.
Earlier in August, Finn issued a rare political statement condemning Angus Robertson and John Mason’s decisions to meet with the Israeli deputy ambassador to the UK.
“Disappointment doesn’t begin to cover how I feel about a minister and backbench MSP from my party meeting Israel’s depute ambassador,” she wrote.
“In the midst of a genocide it is unconscionable and lends legitimacy to the actions of [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s government.”
Finn was approached for comment.
