NICOLA Sturgeon has insisted that she can control her newly expanded party, now Britain's third largest, but the question many at Westminster will be asking as the new battalion of SNP MPs arrives at SW1 is - can she control Alex Salmond?

 

Given the Nationalist party has grown from around 35,000 members a year ago to 110,000 now, and has 64 MSPs and 56 new MPs, the First Minister was asked if she could control it. "Yes," she declared confidently.

"The SNP is a party that is much bigger than it was. It is enthusiastic and absolutely passionate about making Scotland a better place. It's also pragmatic and understands it has a responsibility to represent all of Scotland. I have no concerns about that at all," she added.

In the aftermath of the Nationalists' landslide victory at the General Election, Mr Salmond, the newly elected MP for Gordon, made clear the result had brought Scottish independence closer and was "the latest staging post" on the journey towards the party's dream.

But when asked if she agreed with this, the SNP leader sought to shift the focus and replied: "What Alex said, and I don't think it's a particularly controversial statement, is he thinks Scotland will become an independent country.

"I think Scotland will become an independent country one day. He said he thinks it will be in his lifetime; I hope that's the case."

She later sought to close any perceived rift, saying there was "no disagreement between Alex and I on this; this general election campaign was not about independence".

Before the election, Mr Salmond described how the Nationalists would "shake Westminster to its foundations". Since then Ms Sturgeon has made clear the rest of the UK has "nothing to fear" from an enlarged SNP group at Westminster.

Much of the London-based media, eagerly awaiting the return of the ex-party chief to his old stomping ground, assume he will be the party's new general at Westminster. But this is not so.

Despite the fact it is the newly elected group of 56 MPs who are supposed to vote to elect their new leader, the First Minister has made clear who will take up the role. "Angus Robertson will be the leader of the Westminster parliamentary group," she said firmly.

As Ms Sturgeon considers "what to do with Alex", one potential option is to make him the party's Europe spokesman given the EU issue will be central to parliamentary life up to the referendum vote in 2017 and that his debating skills could come in very handy against the Tory Right.

Another will be to hand him the chairmanship of a Commons committee; the Scottish Affairs one might be the obvious choice.

But whatever role the ex-FM has, Ms Sturgeon will be keen to ensure he does not seek to build a rival powerbase to hers; this would be a gift to Labour and could harm the Nationalists' bid for power in Edinburgh in 2016.

It is interesting to note that before the election, when most commentators and politicians were predicting a hung parliament, Mr Salmond's name was absent from the list of those SNP leading lights, who were suggested as members of the Nationalists' negotiating team.

Perhaps with judicious foresight, in March at the SNP's conference, the party decided, behind closed doors, to pass a policy to ban any of its MPs from criticising the official Nationalist line.

The new standing orders strategy means every MP must "accept that no member shall within or outwith the Parliament publicly criticise a group decision, policy or another member of the group".

It was passed "overwhelmingly", which suggests there was dissent of some sort. Labour dubbed it "Stalinist".

Before the election campaign, Mr Robertson said that if his party did as well as the opinion polls suggested, then Westminster would be in for a "culture shock".

Having 56 MPs is just the start of it.

The party will get an estimated £6 million over the term of the parliament from the taxpayer in so-called Short Money to help it run its newly expanded operation. It will be in the mainstream of Westminster life with spokesmen and women covering all the portfolios. It will be entitled to at least two committee chairmanships.

The SNP leader will get the opportunity to respond to every major Commons statement and, by tradition, will get to ask two questions at Prime Minister's Questions every week. As Ms Sturgeon has already made clear, this weekly spotlight will fall on Mr Robertson not Mr Salmond.