A Scottish National party activist has pulled out of the race to become its new leader and has endorsed John Swinney as Scotland’s next first minister. Graeme McCormick, who stood to become SNP president in 2023, earlier claimed he could gather the 100 signatures needed from 20 different party branches to mount a challenge for the leadership. However, McCormick’s decision not to pursue a leadership bid leaves Swinney, the former deputy first minister of Scotland, as the only official candidate after Humza Yousaf announced he is stepping down. The deadline for nominations is noon on Monday.
McCormick said he reached the nomination threshold of 100 signatures but chose to back Swinney after a “lengthy and fruitful conversation”, and said this could be a “fresh start”. In a statement on Sunday night, he said: “John and I agreed the challenges which the SNP, our government and our people face, and explored new thinking on a range of issues which I am confident, as they are advanced, will inspire activists both within the SNP and wider independence movement in the following weeks and months. “This is a fresh start for our members and our politicians, and I’m sure that John’s determination to deliver independence will be rewarded at the forthcoming general election. “I have therefore concluded that I shall not proceed with my nomination for party leader but instead support John Swinney’s nomination for party leader and first minister of Scotland.”
McCormick’s supporters had argued it would have been undemocratic for the party’s leader to win an unopposed coronation and insist that Swinney ought to face a contest. He won applause from hardliners when he denounced the SNP’s caution over mounting a second independence referendum without Westminster’s approval as “flatulence in a trance” during last year’s party conference. One of McCormick’s backers, Iain Lawson, earlier attacked Swinney for criticising the planned challenge, and in another post accused Swinney of being entitled and “raging” that an ordinary member was going up against him. Swinney, who described himself as the candidate to unite the party after a “difficult” few years, said an election contest would delay the SNP’s essential rebuild. But he signalled he would win any potential contest, telling Sky News that party members “probably know the outcome” between the two potential candidates. His call for SNP members to realise the urgency of the need to restore public confidence in the party was underlined by a poll by Norstat for Sunday Times Scotland, which said support for the party in a Westminster election had slumped to 29%. The poll, the first to be carried out since Yousaf suddenly quit last week, put Labour on 34% and the Scottish Conservatives on 16%. Those figures suggest the SNP could lose 28 Westminster seats, a fall from 43 MPs at present to 15. Labour, which has only two Scottish seats, would win 28. Once Swinney is named the next SNP leader he will have to win a subsequent vote in Holyrood later in the week to become Scotland’s first minister. The SNP said it does not comment on such matters.