He has been an MSP since the birth of Holyrood in 1999, serving twice as a junior minister and a six-year stint as cabinet secretary for the Rural Economy between 2016 and 2021.
Now though, he can’t even be certain that his candidacy for the 2026 election will be endorsed by the party. To his support base he has become an avenging angel, tasked with redeeming the SNP’s soul. This is partly a consequence of having been suspended in 2023 for refusing to back the Scottish Greens’ Lorna Slater – then a cabinet minister – in a no-confidence vote, the only SNP member to do so. The big chill also stems from his support for Alex Salmond throughout his 2020 trial and the fall-out from it that continues to this day.
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Today, Mr Ewing is in a bullish mood, though you suspect that he may be encountering a very long and very dark night of the soul regarding his devotion to the party he’s served for half a century. Throughout our interview the MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber chooses circumspection and rectitude when discussing the party leadership and his issues with its current direction of travel.
It’s only when we begin to talk about the SNP’s Bute House pact with the Scottish Greens that he’s moved to anger, though you sense too that he harbours cold contempt for John Swinney, to whom he refers throughout as “Swinney” while giving everyone else their full titles or their Christian names.
“I find there’s such an ingrained discontent amongst voters amounting to a malaise about the conduct of politics in Scotland and the UK. It’s one of the reasons, I think, why Reform UK are making significant progress. Even without a Scottish figurehead, they’re gaining momentum here.”
He believes that such are the social challenges facing Scotland that now is the time for what he calls “a grand coalition” of all the parties … minus the Greens.
“We’re facing a series of problems which are monumentally challenging. Yet, when I look round the benches, I see clever people in all the main parties, although obviously we couldn’t have the Scottish Greens anywhere near it, quite frankly. It’s not actually about the Scottish Greens as a party as such, it’s the individuals at the top: it’s like a student branch of a Socialist Workers party.”
I suggest to him that the fractures running through the SNP is now an everyday feature of his own party which wasn’t evident under the leadership of Alex Salmond. I’m expecting some pushback from him, or at least some pleas in mitigation, but he pursues the line vigorously.
“I couldn’t agree more,” he says, “and it’s mainly directed against women: Jo Cherry, Ash Regan, Michelle Thompson, Joan McAlpine. And the way they treated Kate Forbes when she ran for leader was quite shocking.
“I recall listening to Good Morning Scotland on two successive days during that campaign. Nicola was interviewed first and the next morning it was Swinney. The things they were saying about Kate were breathtakingly awful. Swinney actually said she wasn’t a Christian, and I thought: ‘What? Really’?
“I’ve since spoken to many people in business who had regarded Swinney highly, until they heard him making these comments. Kate had rattled the party establishment. They began to realise she had a serious chance of winning and she definitely would have won had it not been for the party’s network of patronage kicking in. It was absolutely outrageous what they were saying about her.”
I tell him about my experience visiting Holyrood on the day that Ms Forbes was announced as John Swinney’s deputy and the venom being directed at her by Patrick Harvie and Ross Greer. And how Mr Swinney hadn’t lifted a finger to defend her.
“I found it utterly baffling and shocking at the same time,” says Mr Ewing, “he failed completely in his duty to her that day.
We discuss Nicola Sturgeon’s angry outburst that same morning about the ending of the Bute House Agreement. He can barely conceal his contempt for her position.
“When I was sacked by Nicola in 2021, I wasn’t unhappy about it as I couldn’t have served in an administration which included the Greens. It could have for very, very nasty. And Nicola was actually quite gracious and accommodating about a couple of issues I’d wanted resolved.
“I’m pretty sure that she and Harvie had hatched a broad plan for cooperation before the election. In group meetings I’d warned that we would be tarnished by association with the Greens. I was the only person in the group who suggested that it would be a bad idea.
“How Nicola can think the Bute House Agreement was a good thing and should have continued is beyond me. We’ve lost 50,000 of our members; we’ve lost 20% of our support and we’ve lost three quarters of our MPs. The stuff around the camper van hasn’t helped of course, but the main political damage was caused by our association with this delusional party.”
He laments the atmosphere inside the SNP which he says has become deeply unpleasant in the last five years. “There’s a sourness and hostility towards those who have a different view and have the temerity to express it. It’s somewhat depressing.”
When Mr Swinney became leader and First Minister there was an expectation across politics that ‘Honest John” aka “Full-on John” would repair the damage done during the Sturgeon regime and though he doesn’t want to express personal criticism of Mr Swinney, it’s clear that any respect he might once have had for him has eroded significantly.
I’m surprised at this. I’d assumed that the small band of brothers comprising himself, Mike Russell, Mr Swinney – Angus Robertson perhaps – might have formed a fraternity forged in the heat of old battles which would have prevailed throughout their political vicissitudes.
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“I used to socialise with him and there was a time when our wives and us would visit each other. I think though, that he considers my utterances on such as oil and gas and the lack of action on duelling the A96 – which I think is deliberate – as beyond the pale.
“My loyalty to the SNP over 50 years stems form it being the sole standard-bearer for Scottish independence. For the first 45 years I was quite happy to be in a broad kirk where you felt that your contribution was welcome and well-received, even if you didn’t win every argument.
“You still felt that you were part of a team – especially under Alex – which was heading towards the objective. I’ve always had the view that we need to show the people of Scotland that we can be good at running a devolved administration and building a strong economy. This would involve a 10-year economic plan with business at the heart of Government and involved in policy-making. This is how we move people to consider independence.
“We very nearly did it in 2014, thanks largely to Alex. That’s no longer the case and it troubles me considerably. Who would have dreamed that the main party of independence would not want to develop Scotland’s own natural resources?”
SUNDAY: THE FERGUS EWING INTERVIEW PART TWO
- The fight to secure justice for Alex Salmond
- Why the green energy transition is a chimera based on magical thinking
- Why Kate Forbes is the best person to return the SNP to its core values
