There was a time, in the days of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, when for your average SNP MSP or MP, ‘standing up for Scotland’ meant sitting down and shutting up. Being seen and not heard. Keeping schtum until being asked to clap like a seal in defence of the indefensible.

Sure, some of them would get a reward for supine behaviour and occasionally be given a script written by a special adviser to read out in Parliament. Now that authoritarian currency appears to have been devalued. For some reason, for all the flashing temper in his eyes, the current SNP leader Humza Yousaf seems to lack the ‘threats appeal’ of his predecessors.

Now the nationalists have rebels within their ranks and they seem to be proving the old political adage that the tougher the discipline, the harsher the rebellion when it breaks. And so, unable to maintain discipline, the nationalist leadership north and south of the Border have taken to suspensions.

The latest, and unarguably the greatest, of the suspensions has been that of the veteran Fergus from the Ewing dynasty. From North Sea oil licences to gender recognition, highly protected marine areas to the deposit return scheme, and all along the length of the undualled A9, Fergus has, as the Scottish Conservatives have, stood up for common sense and his constituents. But he has upset the leader of the nationalists’ gardening wing, Patrick Harvie, and so has been sin-binned.

In another purging of the old guard, the rather less revered Angus MacNeil, a select committee chair in the Commons, has been expelled from the party and, if he stands again in the Western Isles, it won’t be for the SNP. It speaks of a strange, perhaps distasteful, set of values, that these veterans are suspended yet the SNP ex-chief whip, Patrick Grady, is restored to the fold despite being found guilty of being sexually inappropriate with a member of staff.

Sure there were no criminal charges, but neither were there when Tory deputy whip Chris Pincher got drunk and groped a man; he resigned from his post, announced his retirement from the House of Commons and, oh, his party leader resigned, too.

Not so in the SNP where standing up for your conscience – and decency – can cost you your job. When the SNP MP for East Kilbride, Dr Lisa Cameron, questioned the leniency with which Patrick Grady was treated, she was ostracised and now the party leadership are trying to have her deselected. Culture minister Christina McKelvie has weighed in, saying she should be replaced by an SNP staffer.

Now there was a time, under Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon, and her chief executive husband Peter Murrell, when discipline was iron. Humza Yousaf has nowhere near that authority, and spare a thought for the man he appointed as his chief executive, Murray Foote. The former Daily Record editor, who boasted of his authorship of ‘The Vow’, must surely be torn.

As a journalist, whistleblowers were to be championed. Those who stood up for their communities against authority were to be celebrated. Standing up for the victim against the sex pest was surely his stock-in-trade. Now he is in charge of defending the sex pest, trying to shut up those who support the victim and, it appears, trying to get them sacked.

One of the reasons Alex Salmond was allowed his iron grip was that he delivered for his party. He delivered the first SNP government and then a referendum. Nicola Sturgeon shared in the reflected glory and therefore reflected authority, although it helped her cause if not good governance that her husband ran the party machine.

But what has Humza Yousaf done to earn the respect of his own side? He only won the leadership because of the party establishment’s backing in a truncated contest, and even then only by a whisker. One more week and Kate Forbes would surely have been First Minister. Indeed, during the campaign, she pointed out that Humza had been a failure in every ministerial role he had attempted to fill.

So early in his leadership, he clearly does not command the respect of his backbenchers. The clapping as if they were being thrown herrings no longer happens in the Holyrood Chamber. Increasingly his own elected members are happy to publicly defy him, whatever the consequences. And deploying the weapons of suspension, deselection and possible expulsion so early on makes one wonder what are his next steps if they fail to unify his party. Cracking a whip rarely repairs splits and the splits in the SNP are becoming more and more obvious.

It seems likely that the SNP will fail to hold onto Rutherglen and Hamilton West in this week’s by-election. That in itself will be a blow, and the only question which remains is what will be the scale of the defeat. The party is also likely to lose seats at next year’s general election. Latest polling suggests the Scottish Conservatives will join Labour in taking SNP scalps. Those MPs who do not expect to hold onto their jobs have little reason to hold their tongues.

Humza Yousaf’s use of discipline seems to have no moral compass other than him asserting the imperative of loyalty to an unproven leader. The MSP who stands up for his constituents – and his party’s manifesto promises – is suspended. The MP who stands up for the victim of a sex pest is threatened with deselection.

Voters like strong leadership, but in a democracy leaders have to earn the right to use their strength. The current leader of the SNP and First Minister has not done so. The speed with which he has resorted to disproportionate discipline rather than rational argument and decent standards is the sign of a weak man. And one whose failures are about to catch up with him.

Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife

Humza Yousaf’s handling of SNP rebels exposes his weaknesses as leader – Murdo Fraser

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