Coffee House Shots: Stephen Flynn on Reform, Sturgeon & a second referendum
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, MP for Aberdeen South, joins Lucy Dunn for a special episode to assess the place of the SNP in British politics as we approach the end of 2025. The SNP were ‘decimated’ to just nine MPs at the 2024 general election – yet, if polls are to be believed, they are on course for another record win in the 2026 Holyrood elections. But can the SNP really frame this election as a ‘fresh start’?
Flynn explains what he made of the ‘bleak fallout’ of 2024, why he is standing for election to Holyrood next year and what he makes of SNP heavyweights such as John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon. Plus, could a push for a second independence referendum be on the cards soon?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Give something clever this Christmas. |
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| 0:17.7 | Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash Christmas. |
| 0:26.6 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm Lucy Dunn and today on a special edition of the podcast, I'm joined by the SMP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn. |
| 0:39.0 | Stephen is the MP for Aberdeen South and has been since 2019. He's also been the S&P's leader in the Commons since 2022, |
| 0:45.1 | at which time the party had more than 40 seats. At last year's general election, however, |
| 0:50.6 | the S&P won just nine and the party could see its Westminster group decimated further |
| 0:54.7 | if Stephen is successful in his bid for a Hollywood seat at next year's Scottish Parliament election. |
| 0:59.7 | So Stephen, welcome to the podcast. |
| 1:02.1 | Well, welcome. |
| 1:04.3 | Thank you. |
| 1:06.1 | Well, I mean, let's start there, actually. |
| 1:08.3 | You know, you've had quite a time in Westminster, so you've made quite a name for yourself, even though your party has lost a number of seats. |
| 1:15.0 | I think the spectator even gave you an award for your performance at PMQs at last year's Parliamentarian event. So why are you moving to Hollywood or why do you want to move to Hollywood? Yeah, look, the desire to go to Hollywood, I guess, for most Scottish MP certainly, I'd like to think that this is the case, Scottish politicians, people in Scottish public life. |
| 1:32.4 | The centre of gravity isn't necessarily Westminster. |
| 1:36.3 | It is Edinburgh, it's back home, it's in Scotland. |
| 1:39.1 | And for me, my entire adult life, the Scottish Parliament, has been a thing. |
| 1:44.2 | I appreciate it for a lot of people living in Scotland and across the rest of the UK. |
| 1:47.3 | That's not been the case because the Parliament is still quite new. |
| 1:50.1 | But for me, it's always been a thing. |
... |
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