This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.

A former SNP MSP has stepped from the shadows to claim – without any evidence – that British intelligence has “captured and controlled” Scotland’s party of government.

Forgive my sarcasm, but as someone who’s investigated the machinations of British intelligence around the world and domestically for 30 years, I can safely say that the SNP is doing a perfectly good job of screwing itself up without the intervention of MI5.

However, Campbell Martin, elected as an MSP in 2003 and expelled a year later, claims the SNP’s focus on 'gender politics' is down to infiltrators trying to damage independence and render the Nats unelectable.

Now, I know a few things about unmasking spies and their double agents. I once named the highest-placed spy for British intelligence inside the IRA: Freddie Scappaticci aka Agent Stakeknife. I’ve exposed British intelligence operations to build the case for war against Iraq.

I know many spies and ex-spooks. So believe me, at every opportunity, I’ve asked members of the intelligence community if they know of any spying activity against the SNP, or the wider Yes movement. The resounding answer is ‘no’.

Evidently, readers are fully entitled to think ‘well, they would say that wouldn’t they – they’re spies’. True, but some of these spies are sources I’ve trusted over decades, who previously passed me highly damaging information. So, I see no good reason why they’d lie. But, again, perhaps, they did lie.

Certainly, many leading SNP contacts of mine – though definitely not all – believe there’s been monitoring or infiltration over the years. Not so long ago, one well-known nationalist politician told me they were “pretty confident” the party had been spied on.

Was there proof? Nope.

It’s understandable that some think the SNP, or Yes movement, has been spied on. There’s been persistent claims, for example, that Prime Minister Harold Wilson was monitored.

MI5’s director-general in the 1980s insisted there was no plot to “undermine or discredit” Wilson, nor was he “the subject of a Security Service investigation or any form of electronic or other surveillance”.

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Again, folk are entirely entitled to think ‘well, they would say that wouldn’t they’. The fact that undercover police infiltrated environmental and animal rights groups certainly doesn’t tamp down suspicions. Trade unionists have insisted the NUM was infiltrated during the miners strike.

There’s evidently grounds for spying on the SNP – the party wants to break up Britain. That could clearly be construed as a threat to national security. But would such spying be permitted? It sounds counter-intuitive but spying on political parties would have to be signed off at the highest level. Would any minister authorise such an operation and risk the hell that would follow exposure? Maybe. Maybe not.

I once had a rare on-the-record discussion with an intelligence chief about the SNP and spying. Ciaran Martin served on the GCHQ board, making him one of the leading figures in British intelligence.

He told me: “I’m completely dismissive of every one of the so-called cybernat conspiracy theories about British intelligence and Scottish politics… Such activity would be wildly illegal. It’s not the sort of thing anyone I know joined up to do.”

The Herald:

Would a man of his standing deliberately, publicly, lie? No, is my answer.

Could MI5 have spied on the SNP? Possibly, but there’s no proof. What’s maybe more likely is that some of the Yes movement’s wilder elements could be used as damaging agent provocateurs. Though again, there’s zero evidence. 

For definitive answers, we’ll have to wait decades for secret papers to be released into the public domain. By which time, though, most of us will be dead.

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