Sturgeon's criticisms of Swinney reveal tensions in SNP ranks

He was her loyal deputy for almost a decade - a trusted ally through the highs and lows of Nicola Sturgeon's tenure as first minister.

From her fallout with Alex Salmond to the Covid pandemic and gender self-ID, John Swinney was right there next to her.

Even in the wake of Peter Murrell's conviction for embezzlement of SNP funds, he resisted criticising Sturgeon's oversight of the party's governance during her time as leader.

In fact, Swinney's support has been so steadfast, Sturgeon once described him as the most important person in her life outside of her family.

It therefore came as something of a surprise when the former first minister chose to criticise the current first minister in the new foreword to her autobiography.

Giving her views on the recent Holyrood election, Sturgeon wrote there was "a lack of vision or big picture thinking" when it came the SNP's campaign.

She went on to say that while the outcome was "an outstanding result" for the party after 19 years in government, there were lessons to be learned.

In her view, the SNP was lucky the Scottish Greens did not stand in more constituencies, suggesting that had they done so, they could have eaten into John Swinney's 58-seat tally.

It was the Greens, Sturgeon said, who'd come closest to "injecting a sense of hope for the future" into the campaign.

In what could be seen as a nod to issues like trans rights and climate change, she said the party had the courage to stand up for what it believed in.

And she added it would be a "massive electoral blunder" for the SNP to "soften" its left-of-centre environmentalist credentials, a reference perhaps to the party's shifting position on oil and gas.

Of course, Sturgeon would be well aware of the headlines such comments would generate, and some have suggested she's simply attempting to garner more publicity.

But her intervention has provoked a bit of a backlash among former colleagues and has raised some questions around the current first minister's approach going forward.

There have long been rumours about the state of the Swinney-Sturgeon friendship.

Relations are understood to have cooled in the last couple of years, as the Scottish government moved away from some elements of the Sturgeon agenda.

After the SNP's poor results in the 2024 general election, Sturgeon publicly blamed a lack of focus on independence.

This time around, she said the party had "rightly put Scottish independence centrally as an objective but didn't always bring alive the opportunities it offers for people in a tangible sense".

Asked about her most recent comments during a ministerial visit on Wednesday, Swinney was characteristically restrained.

He said it was important for people to express their views and described working with Sturgeon as a "great privilege", adding that he was now enjoying having his own mandate to govern.

Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth said her former boss and friend was "entitled to her opinion", but was clear that she didn't share it.

Economy Secretary Stephen Flynn told the BBC it was important that former first ministers share their views, but added that the election result had produced an "emphatic mandate" for Swinney that spoke for itself.

Some of his cabinet colleagues - including those once closely allied to Sturgeon - were more pointed in their responses.

Education Secretary Mairi McAllan - a former Sturgeon protégé - said the claims were "nonsense".

And Health Secretary Angela Constance said she was "incorrect", describing Swinney as the best first minister yet - remarks seen as a dig at Sturgeon.

Of course, it's the cabinet's collective job to be loyal to the current boss. But such sharp rebukes may well suggest the former first minister's standing in the party has shrunk.

Indeed, there is frustration within parts of the SNP that she has sought to criticise, without acknowledging her own role in some of its recent difficulties.

One party figure said she would do well to remember her own irritation at Alex Salmond's backseat driving when she replaced him at the top of the party.

Others have been quoting Clement Attlee, recommending "a period of silence".

Some believe Swinney can and should now take the opportunity to more publicly distance himself from the Sturgeon era, given he now has his own mandate to govern.

That may be easier said than done, especially if his predecessor is unable to resist future political interventions.