Former SNP adviser Alex Bell says party are 'Thatcher's children to a person'

A former SNP adviser has questioned Nicola Sturgeon’s commitment to tackling inequality, describing those in the party as “Thatcher’s children to a person”.

Since taking over as First Minister in 2014 Sturgeon has repeatedly stated her intention to tackle inequality.

But Alex Bell, former head of policy to Alex Salmond, has questioned the party’s stance, arguing that Sturgeon would “rather keep higher earners onside than correct the worst excesses of the pay inbalance”.

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Bell, who helped shape the party’s 2011 election strategy and worked on the white paper on independence until leaving his post over two years ago, suggests that MPs and MSPs “who have had 30 years of building up wealth and are now being paid £75k a year minimum are in the upper echelons of richness”.

Writing in the Scottish Review he also questioned the party’s anti-establishment credentials.

 “The smattering of SNP scandals has revealed it to be just like other British parties – composed of self-starting entrepreneurial types, Thatcher’s children to a person. With questions raised over property portfolios, undeclared business interests and share investments in trusts associated with 'Big Tobacco’, we get a picture of bustling aspirational types who see no wrong in getting rich.”

He said: “There could be a fascinating political debate over council tax, and perhaps other taxes, in order to raise the pay of nurses, social workers and other public servants. It is however a debate the SNP do not want.”

In November Bell used the launch of his new online magazine to criticised the SNP’s model of independence, which he said was “dead”.

He wrote: “The idea that you could have a Scotland with high public spending, low taxes, a stable economy and reasonable government debt was wishful a year ago – now it is deluded.”