From Team Nicola to Team Humza: the SNP Leadership Contest 2023 in Perspective

Abstract

This article puts the 2023 SNP leadership contest in the context of the changing nature of party leadership, strategy to achieve independence and the backdrop to Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation. The SNP has experienced a radical change in its internal organisation with power concentrated in the leadership and the hollowing out of its internal democratic structures. Each candidate rejected Sturgeon’s proposal that the next UK election should be used as a ‘de facto’ referendum but differed in how prepared the SNP was for a referendum. Efforts to achieve a smooth transition to the outgoing leader’s preferred candidate were undermined when two others stepped forward. In the battle to frame the debate, Humza Yousaf sought to present himself as socially liberal and Kate Forbes, his main opponent, as socially conservative. Forbes initially struggled with this framing but gained ground as the internal party matters rose to prominence and public policy failings came to the fore during the contest with her ‘continuity will not cut it’ theme. Ash Regan, having resigned as a Minister under Nicola Sturgeon, offered robust criticisms especially of the SNP Government’s handling of gender recognition. The contest became as much a vote of confidence in the outgoing leader as a choice about her successor.