The SNP’s leader in Westminster has warned members of his party that brutal honesty is needed if it is to rebuild from its crushing General Election defeat.
Delivering the keynote conference speech at the party’s annual conference in Edinburgh, Stephen Flynn said patience was needed to achieve independence.
“There can be no hiding from the fact that I stand here today as the leader of a much smaller Westminster group”, he told delegates.
The SNP returned nine MPs at the election in July, down from 49 in 2019.
Flynn reflected on the SNP losses during the speech while also attacking the Labour government.
But he warned SNP members against blaming the media or political opponents for the party’s defeat.
He said it was the public which sent the party “a stark message”.
He told SNP members: “Our job is to face up to that result and accept the true depth of our defeat.
“Because the right response never lies in easy excuses – the only right response is rooted in reflection and responsibility.
“Because the brutal honesty of democracy means that we need to be brutally honest with ourselves.
“It wasn’t our political opponents, and it wasn’t the media, who sent us a stark message at the general election.
“It was the people we serve.”
The SNP Westminster leader said his party would need to find “patience and purpose” in order to deliver an independent Scotland.
“Because”, he said, “it’s that patience and purpose that will complete the last hard yards of realising that future.
“We should be honest that it has never been and never will be a seamless path to self-determination and independence and at times over the last few years we should admit that we were sometimes guilty of giving that impression.”
He added: “Because in truth, real and lasting patterns in politics aren’t shaped and defined by any one day or by any one election.
“And when we step back for a moment – when we pause – the bigger pattern and bigger picture of Scottish politics comes into far clearer view.”
Flynn attacked the Labour Party during his space, saying that the “relief of getting rid of the Tories” was “rapidly replaced with the reality of a new Labour government”.
He claimed Keir Starmer will “take a hammer to public services”, following the Prime Minister’s warning of a “painful” budget later this year.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the UK Government had found a £20bn financial black hole left by the previous government.
Flynn told the SNP membership: “You will all know that one of the oldest saying in politics is that you campaign in poetry and govern in prose.
“Labour has gone one step further – campaign in poetry and govern painfully.
“From the poetic promise of change to things can only get worse.
“Taking a hammer to public services seems apt for a toolmaker’s son.”
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