By Jessica Frank-Keyes
Rivals scrapped bitterly over their records and castigated each other’s positions, as they fought to take up a dying cause.
This isn’t about the new series of Succession, but another bruising round of political infighting and power plays in the Scottish National Party.
Humza Yousaf’s election as the UK’s first Muslim leader of a (for now) major party and a devolved government should rightly be lauded as a milestone moment for British politics.
But the contest itself has hardly been inspiring stuff, and neither the victor nor his rivals have covered themselves in glory.
Yousaf’s finest head-in-hands moment came when he jokingly asked a group of female Ukrainian refugees “where are all the men?” Toe-curling indeed.
By the end of it, all three candidates awkwardly had net negative favourability ratings. Not exactly something to boast about.
Arguably, leadership elections are always a time when dividing lines are most exposed. Schisms emerge, factions develop, and dirty laundry, some would say, is given a much needed airing.
But then, somehow, people find a way to come together. There’s bound to be some ructions when a departing political giant like Nicola Sturgeon has been the face of a movement for so long.
But the SNP appears more broken than ever right now.
From a police investigation into its finances, splits on divisive issues like gender self-ID, to the resignation of Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell as chief executive – it is fighting on many fronts, and it doesn’t seem to be winning many battles.
But even if you put all these issues to one side, Scots’ support for independence – the core issue the SNP stands to fight for – remains lukewarm at best.
Backing for independence sits stubbornly at 46 per cent – largely unchanged since late February, according to YouGov polling.
Labour and the Conservatives alike will almost certainly be rubbing their hands at the prospect of future political gains in Scotland as the SNP, and its independence campaign, emerge battered, bruised and weaker than ever following a woeful leadership contest.
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