Swinney puts independence back at heart of SNP plans

John Swinney has said the SNP will make a renewed push for independence after admitting that voters have stopped listening to his party.
The first minister said the nationalists needed to win back the votes of Yes supporters from Labour after a damaging general election.
He attempted to evoke the “hope [and] optimism” of the 2014 independence referendum campaign in his first SNP conference speech since replacing Humza Yousaf at the top of the party.
• Swinney warns SNP: win back middle class or face disaster
The 38-minute address, in front of hundreds of empty seats at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, contained no new policy proposals before a difficult week for the Scottish government, which will see up to £600 million of spending cuts announced at Holyrood amid a crisis in public finances.
Sources close to Swinney said that the lack of announcements was down to the fiscal restrictions. The first minister will set out his programme for government, the Scottish parliament’s equivalent of the King’s Speech, on Wednesday, the day after the cuts are revealed.
The SNP slumped to just nine MPs at July’s general election, down from 48 in 2019, in what Swinney conceded was “an incredibly tough night” for his party.
During a private session of the conference on Friday, Swinney warned activists they must win back Scotland’s middle class or face another election drubbing in the 2026 Holyrood contest.
Internal polling analysis showed 250,000 voters switched to Labour with many making the change once they began earning an annual salary of more than “the low £20,000s”.
During his speech, Swinney focused on the constitution, saying: “One of the conclusions I have drawn from the Westminster election, and a fundamental commitment I will make to you is this: never again will we go into an election with people thinking: I like the idea of independence, but that can wait because I’m more concerned about the economy, or my job, or the cost of living or the NHS.”
He said that his case for secession would be “deeply intertwined with people’s everyday concerns”.
He said: “We also have to make sure that we are heard by the public. And we only earn the right to be heard when we are focused not on ourselves but on making life better for all the people of Scotland.”
Swinney, who in May became the SNP’s third leader in just 15 months, came close to tears at the start of his speech as he paid tribute to his wife, Elizabeth Quigley, for backing him to become first minister.
He said that Quigley, who has multiple sclerosis, was “prepared to make the sacrifice of not having her husband around quite as much as she probably needs”.
He made repeated attacks on Labour and claimed that Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was bringing about an “intensification of Tory austerity” that was creating a spending crisis at Holyrood.
The Scottish Fiscal Commission, the independent forecaster, has said that the Scottish government’s own decisions have largely caused the public spending pressures.
In what he said would be an “era-defining moment” Swinney told the conference: “A Labour party that promised change is delivering more of the same.”
Labour MPs have voted against scrapping the two-child limit on some benefits and the UK government has announced the winter fuel payment will no longer be paid to all pensioners, a move mirrored by the Scottish government. Swinney claimed that “Labour appear to want us to abandon low-income families; to abandon children in poverty”.
Swinney said he will unveil “whole-family support”, which he said would be “sustained, smarter policy making” to help combat child poverty.
He said his programme for government would build on the SNP’s record in power since 2007, “building on our beliefs that investing in our people, our public services and our planet is the means to building prosperity for all”.
However, he told delegates: “In an era of Westminster cuts, we are going to have to work harder, and smarter, if we are to deliver on our ambitions for Scotland.”
Craig Hoy, the Scottish Conservative chairman, said: “John Swinney is fooling nobody with his desperate attempt to blame anyone but the SNP for the savage cuts and tax rises his government is imposing.
“His pitiful speech lacked any sort of substance and failed to address the huge black hole in Scotland’s finances which has been created by the SNP’s own incompetence and decision-making.”
Dame Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, said Swinney needed “to wake up to the scale of the challenges facing Scotland on its watch” in the NHS, economy and education.
“Instead, it was a copy-paste speech from a first minister out of ideas and more focused on holding together his divided party than facing up to the challenges Scots face,” she said.
“The SNP’s cynical and dishonest election campaign was rejected by Scottish voters, but it is still sticking to the same script.”