Labour would be 'very foolish' to write off SNP following general election win, warns former MP

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Labour would be "very foolish" to write-off the SNP following its landslide general election victory, a former MP has warned.The Nationalists won in just nine constituencies at the poll on July 4 which saw Keir Starmer's party swept to power after claiming the most seats in Scotland for the first time since 2010.It left the SNP strategy of using the general election as a "de facto referendum" on independence in tatters with activists now split on the way forward.But Dennis Canavan, a former long-serving Labour MP, said it would be wrong to conclude the campaign to end the Union was "dead and buried".Speaking to the Record, the Scottish political veteran said John Swinney's Government still had time to "get its act together" before the next Holyrood election in 2026."Independence is not on the immediate agenda but it would be wrong to conclude that independence is dead and buried," he said. "Support for independence is not the same as support for the SNP."Canavan added: "The Labour Party would be very foolish to assume that the SNP is finished.

At the recent General Election, the SNP got 30 per cent of the Scottish vote, only five points behind Labour. "If the SNP Government gets its act together in the next couple of years, the SNP's fortunes could change - bearing in mind the Holyrood electoral system ensures a more proportional result."There is also the added factor that, in a couple of years, the Labour Government at Westminster may well be facing 'mid-term blues'.

So the political pendulum could swing back again by the time the next elections to the Scottish Parliament are held in 2026."Canavan was a Labour MP for 25 years before he ran as an independent at the first Scottish Parliament elections in 1999.After