Analysis: Swinney faces SNP in crisis as conference looms

Next week's SNP annual conference is looking set to be rather tumultuous.

Put more bluntly, as one source told my colleague Andrew Learmonth, First Minister John Swinney is facing "the conference from hell".

In recent years these events have been stage managed affairs with only an occasional argument expressed in public.

The most controversial moment at last year's party conference was probably when Nicola Sturgeon turned up and aides to her successor Humza Yousaf were said to be rather unhappy at her unscheduled appearance as it overshadowed the new First Minister's address to delegates.

Before that, post Alex Salmond's leadership, among the most stand out dramas was when Chris McEleny, now Alba's general secretary, attempted to put a 'Plan B' route to independence forward and was booed by Ms Sturgeon's supporters from the floor.

This year's event is shaping up to be a lot more sparky to say the least.

The SNP is still reeling from its defeat at the general election when it lost 39 MPs – down from the 48 that were elected in 2019 to the nine it won on July 4.

Conference is to open with an internal session examining what has gone so badly wrong for the party in the space of just over four years.

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And while soul searching is necessary for parties trying to learn from mistakes, ensure they aren't repeated as they try to improve their performances in future elections, the risk is that such behind closed doors introspection could end up becoming a very public blame game – a taste of what we saw in the immediate aftermath of the July vote.

Many in the SNP, and observers alike, expected the conference to be a time when the party would lick its wounds and try to move on to preparing for a new fight for the Holyrood election in 2026.

However, what was not expected until last week was that a whole new row would erupt.

This of course revolves around external affairs secretary Angus Robertson and his meeting on August 8 in Edinburgh with Israel's deputy ambassador to the UK Daniela Grudsky.

Furious members have called for his resignation or for First Minister John Swinney to sack him from his Cabinet position.

They are angry that the meeting discussed areas of co-operation around tourism, culture, renewable energy, between Israel and Scotland when they believe it should have focused solely on the Scottish Government’s position relating to the conflict – the call for an immediate ceasefire by all sides in Gaza, the unconditional release of all hostages and the opening of safe routes to allow more humanitarian aid to reach the people of Gaza.

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In a bid to draw a line under the controversy, Mr Robertson apologised on Monday for not limiting the meeting with Ms Grudsky "to the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the appalling loss of life in the region", later telling BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland (GMS) programme he had not considered resigning his position.

But the controversy shows no signs of going away.

To clarify the source referred to the conference from hell should Mr Swinney not sack Mr Robertson.

"Unless John wants the conference from hell, in less than a fortnight, he’ll ask Angus to resign," they said. "The membership is furious."

A week on Mr Robertson seems in no mood to step down or the First Minister to remove him.

And inside the party members are still angry.

Speaking to The Herald after Mr Robertson's apology, long serving backbencher Christine Grahame thought the external affairs secretary was still "a liability" who had shown "poor judgment' over his meeting with Ms Grudsky.

"A liability"; shown "poor judgment". In case readers missed our story – this type of forceful criticism from an SNP backbencher about a serving Cabinet minister is totally unprecedented.

Angus Robertson apologised for meeting Israel's deputy ambassador to the UK Daniela Grudsky (Image: X)
And while Ms Grahame – an MSP since 1999 and a former deputy presiding officer – may feel brave enough to speak out publicly given her length of time served in Holyrood – others in the party's group at Holyrood, perhaps with less experience, are likely to share her views privately.

Adding to the turmoil are the concerns among Scotland's Jewish community that the SNP has now become antisemitic.

These claims were forcefully made in The Herald today by Colin Cowan, whose brother Bernard was murdered on October 7 last year during the Hamas attacks on southern Israel.

He accused Mr Yousaf of using his embrace with his grieving mother as a "photo opportunity", going on to describe their encounter at a memorial service as "an act of Jew-washing".

Mr Yousaf responded by saying when he participated in the Service of Solidarity at Giffnock Shul in October last year, it was "at a time of extreme personal grief as my in-laws continued to be trapped in a warzone in Gaza, not knowing whether they would live or die day-by-day.

"My commitment to the Jewish community then, and now, is to be an ally in the face of antisemitism, and I am proud of my lifelong campaigning against hatred in all of its forms, and believe that Islamophobia and antisemitism are two sides of the same coin. Let us be clear, criticism of the actions of the Government of Israel is not antisemitism," he added.

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Many will wonder why the Scottish Government did not anticipate the fury that the meeting would cause – and the backlash on both sides of the Middle East divide.

Perhaps it would have been wise by ministers to have pointed to the new spirit of co-operation with the Labour Government and that London was taking a lead in diplomacy and peace process talks over the war. Few hardly would have blamed the administration for adopting such an approach when so many lives are at stake.

Now instead the SNP has annoyed members of the Jewish community, supporters of Palestinians, its own members – and all right before its party conference.