OUTSPOKEN SNP MSP Fergus Ewing has passed vetting following reports he could be barred from standing as a candidate at the next election.
It is understood the Inverness and Nairn MSP had to go through additional checks.
The Mail on Sunday reported that Ewing was asked to secure the party’s confidence by justifying critical remarks he had made against the SNP, including on dualling the A9 and gender reforms.
It was reported last month that the veteran MSP could be blocked from standing as a candidate at the 2026 Holyrood election.
He recently claimed party bosses only tended to select “obedient and pliant” candidates, with an SNP insider describing the case against him as “compelling”.
Ewing, who has been an MSP since the Scottish Parliament’s inception in 1999, was suspended from the SNP’s Holyrood group in 2023 after voting against then Scottish Greens minister Lorna Slater in a vote of confidence.
It emerged last month that Nicola Sturgeon and Colin Beattie had passed internal vetting despite both being under investigation as part of Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform.
Former SNP MSP Alex Neil (above) told The Mail on Sunday: “I am absolutely delighted that Fergus has passed vetting but the question is now, why on earth did the SNP wait so long to pass him?
“Everyone and their granny knows he is one of the most effective MSPs in Scotland and if they had tried to get rid of him there would have been a massive revolt from both the public and within the party.
“The party are fed up with party hacks and nodding donkeys. Fergus speaks his mind and represents his constituency.”
Neil, a former government minister, added: “Whoever was briefing recently that he was not going to pass vetting is obviously not very clever and they have rightly been humiliated.”
The SNP said it did not comment on party vetting procedures.
Ewing did not comment on the vetting update but in an interview with Charles Fletcher’s The Week in Holyrood last month, he said he was planning to stand again.
“I’m just waiting to see whether my party wishes me to stand again", he said.
“I think I’ve got not a bad CV.”
He added: “I think the party machine has become too all-powerful in selecting candidates who may be suitable from the party point of view – in other words, obedient and pliant – but perhaps not what the people want.”
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, who is a close ally of Ewing, waded into the selection row last month.
She told The Herald her party should “look at the long-standing contribution he has made to the party”.
