SNP to boycott Westminster?! The £100,000 reason why it's never going to happen
The suggestion that the SNP should adopt a Sinn Fein-like policy of refusing to send their elected representatives to Westminster may not go down well in some quarters
Fresh from the row over SNP titan Dave Doogan’s suggestion that they would “help anybody into power” – including Nigel Farage – to secure an independence referendum, another leading nationalist light has come up with a different controversial tactic: sulking.
Steven Bonnar said his party should think about copying Sinn Fein’s policy of refusing to send their elected representatives to Westminster. “While we [Scotland and Northern Ireland] have different constitutional arrangements and are at different junctures on our national stories, everything should be considered in the round, including abstention... If the [referendum] impasse isn’t broken, then everything needs to be considered,” he told The Scotsman.
Sinn Fein’s non-MPs do not draw a salary and presumably an SNP abstention campaign would be run along the same lines. Just how popular the idea will be with the party’s eight MPs (basic salary £98,599) remains to be seen.
We note without comment that Bonnar was an MP for five years until losing his seat in 2024, but was elected as an MSP (£77,711) in May. Just how popular Bonnar will now be with his colleagues is another, equally intriguing question.
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