Swinney pledges to restore SNP to winning ways after election losses

John Swinney has promised to make the SNP an “election winning organisation” again, vowing the lead his party to victory at the Holyrood vote in 2026.

He made the commitment in the wake of what he conceded was “an incredibly tough night” in the July general election.

That vote saw the SNP slump to just nine MPs at Westminster, down from 48 at the previous general election.

Just weeks after that, the SNP gathered in Edinburgh for a party conference which began with a lengthy internal session to discussion what happened in that vote – with party depute leader Keith Brown saying while there had been “honest reflection” there was now “undeniable optimism for the future”.

That election came just weeks after Mr Swinney stepped up to become the SNP’s third leader in just 15 months.

Speaking at his first SNP conference since becoming leader and Scottish First Minister ,  he said: “We’ve reflected as a party  and we are learning the lessons of that election.”

He promised a “better future” for both his party and the country as he told activists gathered for the conference in Edinburgh they deserved to have “the most professional, modern, dynamic election-winning organisation”.

He went on to pledge: “That is what I am going to deliver so we win in 2026.”

With this election seeing the Conservatives ousted after 14 years in government and  Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer installed as Prime Minister, Mr Swinney said his party was “very glad to see the back of the Tory government”.But he claimed under the new administration there had been an “intensification of Tory austerity”.

Recalling how Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar had promised “no austerity under Labour” during the campaign, the First Minister said that within weeks of them taking power in Westminster Chancellor Rachel Reeves had “announced £22 billion of spending cuts”.

The SNP leader blasted: “That is politics at its most cynical – and a total breach of trust with all those who supported Labour.”

In what he said would be an “era-defining moment” the First Minister told the conference: “A Labour party that promised change is delivering more of the same.

“The same Tory debt rule. The same Tory cuts agenda.

“Labour hasn’t delivered change. Labour is delivering the same damaging austerity as the Tories.”

With Labour MPs having voted against scrapping the two child limit on some benefits, and the UK Government having then announced the winter fuel payment would no longer be paid to all pensioners, he claimed that “Labour appear to want us to abandon low-income families; to abandon children in poverty”.

Mr Swinney said however he wanted to “chart a very different course for our country” as he argued that Scotland should “abandon the whole rotten Westminster system”.

Stressing that “Scotland has what it takes to be a successful independent nation” he said he would work to make plain to voters that independence is “urgent and essential here and now” to tackle the issues the country faces.

With this month marking 10 years since the independence referendum, he recalled how Scots were told they were “better together” as part of the UK, and promised “strong and stable” government within the Union.

The SNP now has to show Scots that a “better future is possible” and to “unite our country to win our independence”, he added.

More pressingly though Mr Swinney this week has to set out his first programme for government, setting out the legislation his administration will bring forward at Holyrood this coming year.

He said his statement then 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.”

With Mr Swinney having already made plain tackling child poverty will be a priority for him, he said he would set out how the Scottish Government could “tailor support better to families ensuring they get the help they need, when they need it”.

He added that this support would “not have the immediate impact of ending the two-child cap”, but he said it was “an example of the sustained, smarter policy making we are delivering in government”.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie however said it had been 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 added: “It’s time for the SNP to wake up to the scale of the challenges facing Scotland on its watch – from record NHS waiting lists to a stagnant economy to a growing attainment gap.

“Year after year we have heard the same warm words from the SNP but the spiral of decline continues.”

Ms Baillie insisted that “Scotland deserves better than this out-of-touch and incompetent SNP government” while the Tories claimed 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”.

Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy added: “It’s no surprise that throughout the SNP’s woeful three-day conference, they failed to discuss their biggest failures in office such as education and transport.

“Despite receiving record block grants from Westminster, the SNP have run our public services into the ground and saddled Scots with the highest taxes in the UK while ditching universal winter fuel payments and pushing ahead with a wide array of other devastating cuts.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “After being in power for 17 years the SNP are overseeing spiralling NHS waiting lists and a stagnant economy.

“While being wracked by scandal and division they have mismanaged vital public services.”

Claiming that Mr Swinney would “rather keep the focus on breaking up the UK as solution to all of Scotland’s ills”, the Lib Dem added: “It seems the SNP have not learnt anything from the defeat voters handed them in the election.”