Unionists accuse John Swinney of pressing 'panic independence button'
Swinney said that the Holyrood 2026 election campaign will seek to 'build the highest levels of support possible for independence as the best future for Scotland'.
In response, opposition politicians have accused the FM of using independence as a smokescreen ahead of the upcoming 2026 ballot.
READ MORE: John Swinney: Why I'm launching a renewed strategy for independence
Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour deputy leader, said: 'Scots will be shaking their heads at [[John Swinney]]'s latest desperate hit of the independence panic button - it's clear he's a man that's out of ideas and out of steam.
'25 years ago, the then SNP Leader, John Swinney, claimed that independence was 'closer than ever'. Now, he is attempting to lead his troops up the hill once more - but even they don't buy it. John Swinney offers absolutely no vision and no hope for the people of Scotland.
'It is time to turn our backs on John Swinney's old, failed politics of the past and to choose a better Scotland with better leadership.'
Elsewhere, Rachael Hamilton, deputy leader of the Scottish Tories, claimed Scots are 'scunnered' with the [[SNP]]'s 'endless obsession' with independence.
'The nationalists are continuing to prioritise their own interests rather than focusing on what truly impacts the lives of Scots,' she said.
'Patients cannot get a GP appointment, our economy is flatlining and standards have plummeted in our schools.
(Image: PA) 'That is what John Swinney should be focusing on, rather than rehashing the same old arguments on independence that Scots are not interested in.
'After 18 years of monumental failure, this SNP government are tired and out of ideas. For the sake of moving Scotland forward, we must get them out next year.'
On social media, Scottish Tory MSP Stephen Kerr added: 'Independence is irrelevant. Scotland has moved on – but the SNP haven't.'
Meanwhile, Alex Cole-Hamilton, Scottish LibDem leader, said: 'One of the major reasons that the SNP took such a beating at last year's general election is that people are sick of them bleating about breaking up the UK, rather than focusing on health, education and the miserable state of the Scottish economy. It seems like the First Minister is a glutton for punishment.
'John Swinney's total faith in independence to solve every problem is delusional and out of touch.
READ MORE: Scottish Labour spent 3 times more than SNP at last General Election
'Hundreds of thousands of Scots are stuck on waiting lists. That's why at next year's election, I will choose fixing the NHS while John Swinney will choose the squabbles of the past.
'I want to urge everyone to back the Liberal Democrats using your peach-coloured regional ballot paper next May to focus on what really matters.'
On social media, Unionist account The Majority said: 'The *devolved* Scottish Parliament, which you were elected to, has no ability to change the UK's constitution. You have no path to breaking up the UK. Shut up about RESERVED MATTERS and EMPTY. THE. BINS.'
On X, an account named Abolish Holyrood added: 'Allowing separatists to pervert the Scottish Parliament into a platform to break up the UK must stop.'
We told how Swinney insisted that an 'emphatic win' for the SNP at the Holyrood 2026 election is the way to secure independence.
The National's columnists were unconvinced by the FM's new strategy.
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Daily Mail
20 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
STEPHEN DAISLEY: Of course the SNP has never been in politics for Unionists... now it seems not to care for Nationalists, either
The older you get the grumpier you become about repeats, and not just on television. In the world of public policy, you begin to notice that the same bad ideas keep coming round and round. The sales pitch might be altered, the window dressing rejigged, but the goods being flogged remain unchanged. Albert Einstein said repeating the same action while expecting a different outcome was the definition of madness, but it's also an uncanny description of politics. John Swinney 's new independence plan, announced at the end of last week, proposes a three-pronged approach. First, it commits to building up support for separation so that it becomes the settled will of the vast majority of Scots. Next, it undertakes to ramp up pressure on Westminster to concede that will and permit another referendum to confirm it. Finally, it asks the voters to give the SNP another term in charge at next year's Scottish Parliament elections. The word 'new' is doing a lot of heavy-lifting here. Swinney is not submitting any novel tactics or strategies; he offers no answers to impediments economic or constitutional. He is simply rewrapping the same hollow pledges in a shinier bow, and he is doing it for cynical reasons. A growing faction inside the SNP wants Swinney gone and replaced by a younger, more aggressive leader like Stephen Flynn, whom they believe can regain momentum on the constitution. Swinney is looking out for his own skin, not Scotland. In his defence, he's hardly the first SNP leader to string along the party faithful with empty promises. There is an Indyref 2 panic button at Bute House and, little more than a year into his leadership, Swinney has punched it. It's a wonder this button still works given the scale of overuse in the past decade. In March 2016, Nicola Sturgeon hit the alarm and announced 'a new initiative to build support for independence' that summer. Once summer was over, she unveiled a 'new conversation' on independence, then, the following month, a consultation on an Indyref2 Bill. In March 2017, Sturgeon said autumn 2018 would be a 'common sense' time for a new referendum and, later that month, that she planned to request a Section 30 order from Westminster. The following May, the panic alarm was back in use when Sturgeon published the report of her Sustainable Growth Commission into 'the economic opportunities of independence'. In April 2019, she confirmed her government would be 'giving people a choice on independence later in this term of parliament'. That October, she told SNP conference there would be a referendum in 2020. In January 2021, Sturgeon promised a referendum if the SNP won that May's Holyrood elections and then, in September, commissioned a 'detailed prospectus' on the case for independence. Two months later, she told SNP conference that her independence campaign would relaunch in 2022. In June 2022, the Indyref button was jabbed again, as Sturgeon set out plans for a referendum in 2023. Then, that November, she declared the 2024 general election a 'de facto referendum'. Come October 2023, her successor Humza Yousaf stated that election would in fact be an opportunity to give the SNP a mandate to enter negotiations for a second referendum. Then last June, his successor John Swinney said voting SNP in the following month's election would 'intensify the pressure to secure Scottish independence'. For a decade, party members have been left waiting for a referendum that was never coming and perhaps never will. The SNP has enough financial woes as it is, but its constitutional strategists ought to be paying royalties to the estate of Samuel Beckett. The secret to the SNP's success in the Alex Salmond and early Sturgeon years was its positioning as a big-tent, New Labour-style party. By being all things to all people, the Nationalists were able to cobble together a formidable electoral coalition. Independence supporters could back the SNP safe in the knowledge that secession was its chief priority, while Unionists could back them knowing they were in no hurry to secede. That tent has been stretched to breaking point. Swinney's latest ruse will have been greeted with horror by pro-Union voters and people of all constitutional persuasions who want to see the Scottish Government focused on the economy, services and public safety for the time being. He was supposed to be different. A fresh start. A first minister who would move beyond division and get Holyrood back on track. Instead, he has revealed himself to be every bit the political tribalist that Sturgeon and Yousaf were, more fixated on internal party disputes than on the concerns of ordinary Scots. Swinney has made clear that he puts party before nation. How can he expect voters who put Scotland before the SNP to lend him their votes? And while he disregards the interests of pro-Union voters, he doesn't do so to serve the interests of pro-independence voters. He puts party before nation but also puts self before party. All Yes voters get from Swinney is pandering. He has no intention of doing anything for them. He talks independence to get them riled up and out to the polls to vote SNP but, once the ballots are in, the constitution tumbles back down the hierarchy of priorities. Unionists decry the contempt in which they are held within the senior ranks of the SNP, but they should spare a thought for the grubby, exploitative way in which Yes voters are treated. Set aside your own thoughts about independence. It is something half the people in this country believe in, many of them passionately and some of them their whole life long. Time and again they were assured by Sturgeon, then Yousaf, and now Swinney that it was coming yet for a' that. One more plan, one more push. It's within reach, almost there. Vote here, donate there. But it wasn't coming, it still isn't, and it won't be any time soon. At this point, there are two paths to independence. Convince Westminster to allow a repeat of the 2014 vote. Granting another referendum would be an act of unparalleled stupidity, sure to do grievous harm to Britain, and would require a prime minister with the strategic nous of a baked potato. You can see why the SNP might harbour hopes for Keir Starmer, but it is still highly unlikely that Westminster would take the risk. Alternatively, you could go down the route of a unilateral declaration of independence, but it's fraught with risk, has no guarantee of success and might even make some important nations ill-disposed to Scotland. (They have their own separatist movements and it would not be in their interests for a Scottish UDI to be a success.) If Holyrood declares independence, there is no mechanism to compel Westminster or any foreign state to recognise it. Instead of being honest with their voters, the SNP leadership spins out fantasies like Swinney's three-pronged plan and tries to gull ordinary Nationalists into thinking independence is imminent, so they keep voting and donating. Giving people false hope is one of the cruellest things you can do in politics but the SNP does it to its own voters without compunction. The SNP has never been in politics for Unionists, of course, but it's no longer in it for Nationalists either. It has ceased to be a big-tent party and has become a narrow elite that exists only to serve its own interests and maintain itself in power. No plan, no matter how many prongs it has, is going to change that. The only way forward is for all Scots, Unionists and Nationalists alike, to declare their independence from the SNP at the ballot box.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Westminster will never feel any heat from the FM's hot air and bluff
A credible plan that adds up and includes answers to the currency question and real figures for an independent Scottish budget. Is that too much to ask? READ MORE: Mike Small: I pored over John Swinney's strategy – here's what we must do now If this three-point plan is all we are to get from the SNP and its leadership between now and May 2026 then we are, at best, looking at ten or more years of trying, and increasingly failing, to make the devolution settlement add up. Scotland free by 2033, perhaps. Council Tax will be unaffordable for many households while radical and practical solutions like Annual Ground Rent will continue to be ignored. Jobs in vital industries will continue to be lost and the wind turbines which increasingly dominate our landscapes will continue to export their electricity to our southern neighbours. READ MORE: SNP must realise Yes groups aren't rivals – they're reinforcements John needs to wake up and smell the Scottish political coffee. It has gone well off the boil in the past 10 years. SNP support is falling well behind support for independence and this latest three-point plan will do nothing to close that gap. Apparently John is ready to 'turn the heat up on Westminster'. The last time I looked, [[Westminster]] had a massive Unionist majority – it always has and always will. They will never feel any heat from John's hot air and bluff. It is clear that the SNP's message is "keep the faith and vote for us in May so that we can just keep on doing the same as we have been doing for the past ten years for another ten years at least." John Baird Largs FRIDAY'S National devoted two full pages to 'John Swinney: Why I'm launching a renewed strategy for independence'. I firstly had to wonder if John penned this article himself, or was it the product of AI and the efforts of one of the Scottish Government's small army of special advisers, then simply approved by John? It is clear that the renewed strategy is cauld political porridge reheated and served up to try and fill the empty bellies of Scotland's independence supporters who are desperately hungry, virtually starving in fact, for new initiatives with hopefully a wee sprinkling of inspiration. I had to wait until I reached the very bottom scrapings of John's porridge bowl to find his scarce-in-detail three-part plan. The final 329 words to be exact. There are more words in this letter! READ MORE: John Swinney's plan can't be the final word on independence John claims that 'first, it will be a campaign designed to build the highest levels of support possible for independence as the best future for Scotland'. This is welcome but it's nothing new. The SNP have been trying to do it for almost 100 years. The real problem for John is that SNP support is now firmly anchored well below support for independence. Some might even argue it is dragging it down. Second in John's plan is 'building public pressure around Scotland's fundamental national rights. We are ready to turn the heat up on Westminster and its anti-democratic stance, mobilising the support, energy and the impetus of people in Scotland behind the simple idea: no ifs, no buts, Scotland has the right to choose'. This is fighting talk, just talk, but with the loss of almost all of the SNP's MPs just over a year ago, Westminster is not going to listen, John. The Scottish public need to hear what is the SNP's practical road map to independence – if they even have one. The third point: 'The way to deliver independence is only with an emphatic SNP win' is simply longhand for "vote SNP on both ballot papers so that the SNP can try to manage devolution for yet another five years." Is that the best we can hope for? Brian Lawson Paisley JOHN Swinney is asking us to imagine this and imagine that. What the hell for? It's a sure sign he is out of touch with Scotland. We don't need to imagine anything he is asking for. It might be in his imagination, but not ours. Just what does he think we have been doing since 2014? We, the people of Scotland, know what we want. So it's time he got out of his SNP bubble and talked to us through a national public convention. This is the diplomatic way forward, just to remind him. Not a dictatorial set of notions of his own making. And yes, I am still an SNP member. Alan Magnus-Bennett Fife READ MORE: Pro-independence politicians respond to John Swinney's strategy I HAVE a lot of sympathy for John Swinney. I think fundamentally he's a good guy with an almost impossible job to do. There's no doubt he's improved the SNP position since he took over. He's a good manager, but as a radical independence motivating force ... err no, that's not going to happen! I know it's been tried before (with the wrong people in my view ) but I believe John should appoint Stephen Flynn as indy minister. He already has a known media profile, he seems to have a bit of fire in him and is a bit of a disruptor. I don't know if that's a realistic possibility, but we desperately need someone from the [[SNP]] to be 100% dedicated to promoting the benefits of indy and the depressing reality of the union. We need someone to be working with other indy parties as a united front, someone who will attend rallies, etc. We need action urgently – time is running out, John!! Colin T Largs
The National
an hour ago
- The National
How long before the ‘rebel' Labour MPs jump ship to Corbyn's party?
READ MORE: Labour MPs back Diane Abbott after second suspension These 'rebel MPs' (and those who forced Starmer to change recently) are going to be kicked out at the next General Election anyway, so why not stand up for what they believe in and join Corbyn and co to boot Starmer and his useless bunch out? Will it change much? I certainly think it will, because it can't get any worse under this current lot masquerading as Labour when everyone knows they are Tories in disguise! Jim Todd Cumbernauld
