The SNP’s Westminster leader has said the party has “failed” to deliver hope and optimism to the people of Scotland in recent years.

Speaking ahead of the SNP’s annual conference in Edinburgh this week, the Aberdeen South MP issued a “call to action” to party members following a disastrous general election.

The SNP fell to just nine MPs, after winning 48 in 2019, capping off a tumultuous period that has seen three leaders in 18 months, an ongoing police investigation and declining poll numbers.

Offering a “very simple message” to SNP members in a piece for the Daily Record, Mr Flynn simply said: “Change.”

“All politics is personal and it is time we got ourselves back into the business of delivering the hope and optimism that has been in such short supply for people living across Scotland,” he wrote.

“Now, the harsh truth is that we have failed on that front in recent times.

“The trust that drove the SNP to unprecedented heights has gradually eroded.

“That’s a burden we all must share and accept irrespective of our role in it.

“In a team you don’t point fingers, you accept that the mistakes of others are yours too.”

His comments were not a “veiled attack on former leaders”, or “an attempt to attack my own party’s record in Government”, Mr Flynn said.

But he did urge the party to “be the change that the public expect and deserve” ahead of the Holyrood election in 2026.

The public, he said, want to see “aspiration put front and centre”, and there is no group “better placed to deliver upon change than my colleagues in Government”.

“They are wise enough to know more of the same won’t deliver the return to success our party craves, and the cause of independence requires,” he wrote.

He added: “The opportunity to grasp the thistle and send a new shockwave through Scottish politics in 2026 remains.

“But for that to happen, our priorities, our actions and our delivery must change.

“Starting now.”