The SNP is in a donations row of its own

The thing about being holier than thou is that you actually have to be holier. Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, has made much of Sir Keir Starmer’s freebie woes. The SNP called for an investigation into Lord Alli’s donations to the Prime Minister and Flynn used a newspaper column to observe: ‘Of course, it’s important to say that such clothing gifts come with no attachments. No, none at all. They are all just from the kindness of a filthy-rich donor’s heart. I mean, who doesn’t have friends like that?’ Fortunately – and unfortunately – for him, Labour donors aren’t the only generous contributors in politics.

Questions are mounting over a £30,000 donation to a local SNP branch in Flynn’s Aberdeen South constituency from green energy entrepreneur Allan MacAskill. He is the co-chief technical officer of Flotation Energy, which is developing a floating wind farm called ‘Green Volt’ off the coast of Aberdeenshire.