The SNP needs to win back voters who defected to Labour rather than those who stayed at home, the party’s Westminster leader has said.
The party met for its first conference since the election loss last month which saw them drop dozens of MPs, an event starting with a behind-closed-doors post-mortem led by First Minister John Swinney.
Speaking to journalists after the session, Stephen Flynn said the party suffered from multiple “self-inflicted wounds” in the election campaign.
But with the party having dropped 15% of its share of the vote, and Labour seeing an almost 17% increase, Mr Flynn said the SNP would have to win back those who looked elsewhere.
“I actually think the bigger question there is those SNP voters who didn’t vote for the SNP, who voted for a different party, who voted for the Labour Party,” he said.
“It’s those people that we need to firstly acknowledge, and we need to win back their support and their trust, and the best way to do that is to get on with the business of delivery.”
Asked about specific issues with the party’s delivery, Mr Flynn referred to an earlier interview on Friday where he said: “While the Scottish people were in the midst of a cost of living crisis, we were having an argument with the UK Government about a bottle bank.
“That breeds frustration within the populace and it’s something which I felt on the doorstep.”
Mr Flynn is referring to the deposit return scheme (DRS), a recycling project which was effectively blocked by the previous UK government.
But he added: “I don’t just blame the election result on delivery problems or priority problems.
“I blamed it on many of the self inflicted wounds that we’ve had, I’ve acknowledged the fact that, ultimately, the Labour message of change was very crisp and clear and people understood it and believed in it, because they wanted rid of the Tories.”
The challenge for the party, he added, was “how we re-engage, re-imagine what the SNP stands for” that brings the Scottish electorate “back on side” with the party ahead of the 2026 election.
Members who were involved in the “open and frank discussion” on Friday morning, Mr Flynn said, would be “pleased” the party had held the session.
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