Euan McColm: Humza Yousaf’s Brian Souter begging bowl simply reeks of hypocrisy

Former Stagecoach chief’s views may infuriate many party members and associates but the SNP needs his helpnote-0

Anyone still clinging to the idea the SNP is a uniquely progressive party is deluding themselves. For decades, the nationalists’ story has been that theirs is a special brand of politics, at all times forward-thinking and morally sound. Central to this yarn has been performative allyship with various minority groups.

But the contest, last year, to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and First Minister exposed the fragility of the party’s facade. Almost half of all votes went to candidate Kate Forbes who, early in the race, let it be known that, had she been an MSP when the matter of gay marriage was being considered, she’d have voted against. You may recall that Forbes was abandoned by some high-profile supporters and that sundry SNP sources briefed the press about her unsuitability for the position of First Minister.

Among the evidence offered up to support this assertion was Forbes’s attendance at a prayer event alongside Stagecoach tycoon, Brian Souter, where she spoke out against abortion. Souter had been a regular donor to the SNP during the years in which Alex Salmond was leader but to the new generation of senior nation nationalists, his socially conservative views made him toxic. It turns out that Souter is no longer the pariah he was last year.

First Minister Humza Yousaf has reached out to the businessman to enlist his help with fundraising. Just to be clear: Kate Forbes association with Brian Souter made her unsuitable for leadership but Humza Yousaf’s approach to him is, we are to accept, perfectly fine. The reek of hypocrisy is so strong you may have to wash it out of your clothes.

Pragmatists within the upper echelons of the SNP are relaxed about Yousaf’s decision to open up a dialogue with Souter. It’s important, says one key figure, for the First Minister to reach out to those with whom he might not always agree and to make an effort to engage with business. The SNP can’t afford to run “purity tests” on the past political statements of people who want to help, says another.

It is, undoubtedly, true that – under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon – the SNP was not at all good at reaching out to the business community. The claim about the need to make an effort to change that has some ring of truth. But let’s not kid ourselves.

Humza Yousaf wants to make nice with Brian Soutar because the SNP needs money. Yousaf wants Soutar to host a business dinner because he needs donors. This is the stuff of politics, where the demands of reality take precedence over the romantic notions of party members but it may prove too much for some activists to bear.

Soutar, who sold Stagecoach for GBP595 million in 2022, became a bogeyman for the progressive left more than 20 years ago when he campaigned to keep the Section 28 clause, known as Section 2A in Scotland, which ordered councils to avoid “intentionally promoting homosexuality”. So fiercely opposed was Souter to the abolition of the clause that he ponied up GBP1m to run an unofficial referendum on the matter. Patrick Harvie, leader of the SNP’s partners in government the Scottish Greens, is clearly deeply unhappy about the situation.

In an interview last week, he said his entry into politics was prompted by Souter’s campaign. You can taste the anger in Harvie’s words. “What has to be really, really clear,” he said, “is that not just my party, but the Scottish Government, does not share the values of Brian Souter. That needs to be made very, very explicit.”

Harvie may repeat this statement, mantra-like, but the truth is that the major party in the Scottish Government is willing to accommodate the values of Brian Souter. During a speech in Edinburgh a few years back, former US President Barack Obama spoke about the “necessary hypocrisy of politics”. Sometimes, one’s principles could be a barrier to progress.

The SNP needs money so it reaches out to socially conservative former donor may be filed under that necessary hypocrisy category. If the party is to energetically continue its pro-independence mission, Brian Souter’s help would be invaluable. In fairness, other parties have recently indulged in some necessary hypocrisy of their own.

The most impressively brutal example is, I think, that of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s wooing of supporters of predecessor Jeremy Corbyn during the party’s leadership contest of 2020. Starmer encouraged many on his party’s left that he would continue to promote their policy priorities. Since winning, he has treated the crank-left with the contempt it deserves.

Corbynistas may howl on social media about Starmer’s betrayal but, in the real world, voters see a leader who’s serious about clearing up the Corbyn mess. Any damage to the SNP over Yousaf’s entente with Souter is liable to be self-inflicted. The leaders of other parties may not agree with Brian Souter’s socially conservative views but they have appetite neither to pick arguments with a successful Scottish businessman nor to invite purity audits of their own donors.

Yousaf’s decision to try to rebuild a relationship with Brian Souter creates a challenge for those SNP supporters who see themselves as part of a progressive movement with some kind of social justice at its heart. Do those people speak out against any association with Souter or do they bite their tongues? Those who are serious about their politics will, I think, keep it zipped.

Humza Yousaf inherited a party in crisis, with donors dropping like flies. His approach to Brian Souter may infuriate some SNP members but any attempt to undermine this new relationship would be a self-indulgence. Humza Yousaf’s new alliance with Brian Souter may be the height of hypocrisy.

But, right now, it’s also entirely necessary.