In the end, it was a bloodless coup.
Stephen Flynn defeated Alison Thewliss in the election for the SNP’s Westminster leader by 26 votes to 17 and – in public, at least – all was sweetness and light.
Speaking to Sky News alongside his new deputy Mhairi Black immediately after his election, Mr Flynn paid a warm tribute to his predecessor, Ian Blackford, just a few weeks after attempting to oust him for being Nicola Sturgeon’s “yes man” in Westminster.
A fortnight ago Mr Blackford was claiming he’d seen off the Flynn coup.
But after it became clear last week that he hadn’t and the “humble crofter” (who’s really an ex-banker) announced his resignation, it’s claimed Ms Sturgeon persuaded her ally Ms Thewliss to stand against Mr Flynn.
In the hours leading up the SNP group’s AGM, there were claims that the election was “nip and tuck” and that the first minister – or “the FM”, as her loyal acolytes call her – had been “hitting the phones” urging MPs to back Ms Thewliss.
The first claim turned out to be wildly inaccurate and the second was hotly denied by senior SNP MPs, even though one leading Thewliss supporter mistakenly told Sky News when voting was already underway; “It’s close.”
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At 5pm, the SNP’s MPs filed into Committee Room 21 on a remote corridor right at the top of the Palace of Westminster (in a vain attempt to evade prying journalists) for hustings.
From the corridor, it all sounded very polite and good-natured.
And after electronic voting opened at 6pm, while the AGM was going on, the MPs had cast their votes within half an hour or so and the result was announced by the party’s deputy leader, Keith Brown MSP, who was chairing the meeting via Zoom from Holyrood.
Mr Flynn, MP for Aberdeen South since 2019, is just 34 and almost certainly one of the youngest leaders of a UK political party.
William Hague was 36 when he became Tory leader in 1997. Rishi Sunak, at 42, is the youngest PM in modern times.
Mr Flynn’s detractors in the party claim he has a “blokeish” image because he’s a member of group of SNP MPs known as the Tuesday Club, who meet for beer, curry and five-a-side football. On a Tuesday, obviously.
Although his tone was conciliatory in his Sky News interview, he’s pledged to launch a clear-out of Mr Blackford’s frontbench team and is expected to hand a comeback to one of Ms Sturgeon’s fiercest critics, top KC Joanna Cherry.
His deputy, Ms Black, who’s just 28, has a reputation as a firebrand. And anyone who’s heard her speak in the Commons or at SNP conferences will confirm it’s well deserved.
She was just 20 and a student when she was elected MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South in the SNP near-landslide of 2015, when they won 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats.
So this young leadership team – a dream team, their supporters would claim – now begins the task of taking on the Conservatives and Labour in the Commons, starting with Mr Flynn challenging Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister’s Questions on his first full day as leader.
The coup may have been bloodless. But Mr Flynn’s fight with his political opponents in the SNP’s battle for Scottish independence will be bruising.
