Stephen Flynn, the leader of the SNP’s Westminster faction, confesses that he was “a bit of a troublemaker” at school. The 34-year-old’s recollection of his teenage antics certainly make Theresa May’s disclosure that her naughtiest act was running through fields of wheat look tame. “We used to create wrestling rings with the hay bales, which the farmers absolutely detested,” he said, recalling his early years in Dundee and Brechin. “We’d put [the bales] together and have a big rammy in the middle, re-enacting WWF [World Wrestling Federation].”
Flynn, who has enjoyed a rapid rise since his election as MP for Aberdeen South in 2019, has no intention of avoiding a political “rammy” in the SNP’s quest to achieve independence for Scotland. His early Commons appearances have shown him to be a more direct and confrontational politician than his predecessor, Ian Blackford, whom he replaced in December in what has been described as a coup.
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