SNP veteran Fergus Ewing may run as independent

Ewing has represented Inverness and Nairn since 1999, and served as rural affairs secretary in government. The 67-year-old said SNP membership was part of his very soul but that it needed to change as it was "no longer the party for all of Scotland". He has been increasingly at odds with his party over slow progress in dualling the A9 and A96 roads, and said he may stand as an independent candidate unless "substantial progress" is made. In a statement given to local newspapers, he said there were several reasons why he had decided not to stand again for the SNP, but the principal one was the issue of roads. He wrote: "I simply cannot defend the record of the SNP government to fail to deliver on its long-standing pledges to dual the A9 and A96 - both so vital for my constituency. "I have stood in every election on these pledges, and so, as a matter of honour, I simply cannot defend the lack of delivery." The Scottish government has said it remains committed to dualling both the A9 and A96, but the timetable for both projects has slipped. Ewing has been at odds with the SNP leadership over a number of issues including the deposit return scheme, gender recognition reform, marine protected areas and what he perceives as a lack of support for the oil and gas industry. But he said the "lack of action" in dualling the key trunk roads was "indefensible". "Every Highland family worries when a loved one has to travel up or down the A9 or the A96," he wrote. He said he was also worried the Scottish government was preparing to ditch a pledge to dual the A96 even though £100m had been spent on the project already. Fergus Ewing is the son of SNP icon Winnie Ewing, who died in 2023, and he was first elected to the Scottish Parliament when it was re-established in 1999. He said he would remain in the SNP for now and remained committed to independence which he saw as a "cause unwon" but not lost. "We can regain the trust of the people that we built up during the successful Salmond years. "Over the past four years, the sad reality is we have lost much of that trust and support," he said.