BLINK and you might have missed the latest development in the rollercoaster that is the SNP’s leadership contest.
On Friday evening, the SNP’s communications chief at Holyrood, former Daily Record editor Murray Foote, resigned.
On Saturday morning, SNP chief executive Peter Murrell resigned.
On Saturday afternoon, SNP president Michael Russell was installed as interim chief executive in Murrell’s place. And less than an hour later, one Scottish Tory MSP was telling him to resign as well.
Sandesh Gulhane, the Tory health spokesperson at Holyrood, decided that 45 minutes as SNP chief executive was too long for Russell, saying on Twitter that he “needs to step down” …
Responding to the news of the SNP president’s temporary new role, Gulhane wrote: “The man who thinks people who don’t hold the exact same view as him are enemies?!?!?
“Needs to step down.”
The man who thinks people who don’t hold the exact same view as him are enemies?!?!? Needs to step down
— Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP (@Sandeshgulhane) March 18, 2023
The reference was to a tweet from Russell in which he tried to calm an SNP leadership race descending into a row over voting transparency.
He wrote: "As @theSNP president I have told the national secretary I support publishing membership figures. I also have full confidence in her & the external verification & count.
“I am disgusted by the abuse directed at @theSNP staff by individuals who damage our cause & aid our enemies.”
Russell has been dismissive of the manufactured outrage from Tories over his use of the word “enemies”, responding to one MSP who kicked up a fuss: “If the cap fits…”
As such, it seems vanishingly unlikely that Gulhane’s calls for an immediate resignation will do anything more than fall on deaf ears.
Perhaps he should have waited longer than 45 minutes.
And they say a week is a long time in politics.
