Billionaire Brothers Back Labour To Oust ‘Frivolous’ SNP
Sandy and James Easdale offer ‘six-figure donation’ to Anas Sarwar’s party, saying John Swinney is ‘anti-business’
Two of Scotland’s wealthiest businessmen have donated a six-figure sum to Scottish Labour’s election campaign fund after branding the SNP too “frivolous” to back.
Sandy and James Easdale said they want to help Anas Sarwar’s party oust the SNP from power at Holyrood at the Scottish parliament vote in May.
The billionaire brothers said they believed that although the SNP had been the country’s governing party since 2007, it had wasted its opportunity to deliver growth by neglecting some of the economic powers given to it by devolution.
“If the SNP had been successful, we wouldn’t be here now, but they’ve not been successful,” Sandy Easdale told The Herald. “It’s now time to draw a line in the sand for change. And the best change available, we believe, is Anas Sarwar.
“Anas Sarwar has a better handle on business and how Scotland’s business sector works. He knows how a successful and thriving Scottish business sector helps provide jobs and security for families and communities across the land.”
Sandy hinted the brothers’ support might have gone in a different direction if Kate Forbes, the SNP’s deputy first minister and economy secretary, had not been quitting national politics.
Forbes, the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP, said when she announced in August last year she was standing down that she did not want to “seek re-election and miss any more of the precious early years of family life”. Her daughter had turned three the month of her announcement.
Sandy said: “Kate Forbes is a very impressive figure and knows the importance of business, especially in smaller communities, but she’s quitting the Scottish parliament.”
He accused John Swinney, the first minister, of being “anti-business”.
“He’s anti-growth,” he said. “Look at the number of small and medium-sized businesses that have been forced to close, often because of crippling business rates.”
However, the “greatest disappointment” for the brothers after 11 years of the SNP in the post-Alex Salmond era was the SNP’s “neglect of Scotland’s devolved powers”, Sandy said.
“They have got a fully functioning parliament with significant powers to make change, but they have neglected them,” he added.
James added: “The SNP have become frivolous, they can’t be taken seriously. We’re not pro-independence, but we wouldn’t be unhappy about it if we could be confident the country was being run competently.”
James and Sandy Easdale
The donation marks the first time the brothers, who are on The Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of almost £1.5 billion, have publicly entered the political arena.
The Easdales have made their Inverclyde-based bus company, McGill’s, into the UK’s largest independent operator in the sector.
Their business empire includes pubs, hospitality, property and housing and employs more than 3,500 people. Their public profile was raised when they became members of the Rangers board for two years up to 2015.
Sarwar said he was grateful for the support of the Easdales: “This election is a clear choice for Scotland: another decade of the SNP under John Swinney, or change with me as first minister,” he said.
“After almost 20 years, the SNP have had their chance - it’s time to use the powers we have to deliver change that Scots need.”
The donation is reported to be conditional on Sarwar’s commitment to making the Labour Party in Scotland “more Scottish-facing” and to policies being shaped specifically to Scottish needs. As a result, half of the money will be delivered now and the other half when Labour is seen to deliver a distinctively Scottish identity.
Scottish Labour’s windfall has occurred as the SNP is struggling to recoup cash lost by declining popularity and electoral defeats.
The party has experienced a sharp decline in membership numbers since the Salmond years and the loss of nearly £1 million of Westminster funds after 39 of their MPs lost their seats at the 2024 general election.