John Swinney's admission he's contributed to Scotland's divisive politics should be a turning point – Stewart McDonald

It was remarkable to hear new First Minister admit that he, like many politically active people, has played a role in the coarsening of political discourse

I have made no secret of my support and admiration for John Swinney and our new Deputy First Minster Kate Forbes. They have sharp minds, are rooted in their communities, and have a keen sense of the party’s mood and the country’s needs. As a team, however, they are far more than the sum of those parts.

In Swinney, we have an unflappable 60-year-old Edinburgh man who has been a public servant his entire working life and led his party during years in opposition and in government while, in Forbes, we have a Highland woman in her 30s who has lived in India, studied at Cambridge and worked in the private sector. It is a genuinely remarkable duo that represents modern Scotland at its best.

One of the most repugnant aspects of the Tory leadership campaign was the naked pork-barrel politics that Rishi Sunak boasted about practising when he told the crowd that he was prepared to take money away from “deprived urban areas” to help wealthy towns. This clientelist way of politics is not only profoundly anti-democratic, it drags us all down, makes us poorer and more divided.

John Swinney and his Deputy Kate Forbes make a formidable double act (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

In stark contrast, the new SNP leadership represents a coalition of the country, laser-focused on delivering for everyone in Scotland. Taken together and united by their shared goals of supporting economic growth, investing in public services and eradicating child poverty, Swinney and Forbes make a formidable team. It’s the stable government the country has been crying out for, and exactly the kind of approach we need if we’re to ever hope of advancing the prospect of independence.

Scotland ‘open for business’

If this wasn’t clear before, then the coverage of Forbes’ appointment as Deputy First Minister should have dispelled any misconceptions. The second sentence of the Financial Times article on her elevation to high office was a direct quote from Forbes herself. “Scotland is open for business,” she told the paper’s readers. “We want your business, we value your business, and we are here to listen and ensure that your investment is as simple and straightforward as possible in the shared objective of creating jobs.”

That is coverage no press officer or media budget in the world can buy. It comes from having a politician who has the credibility and networks within that world already and who knows how to speak the language of the private sector, a skill rarer than snake charming in some political quarters. But stakeholder engagement alone does not a politician make, and I recognise the concerns that some people, including fellow members of the LGBT community, have voiced about Forbes’ appointment and her views on social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

I would first point out that Forbes won 48 per cent of second preference votes in the last leadership contest. It is impossible to paint Forbes as a polarising or divisive figure when all the polling, inside the party and out, shows this is simply not true. The second fact is that the SNP is bigger than any one person or figurehead. That is something that, under previous First Ministers, we may have been too quick to forget.

Strong support for same-sex marriage

As the voting records in Holyrood and Westminster show, every single major party (aside from the DUP) had members who voted differently from their colleagues on same-sex marriage – with past, current, and future ministers among the dissidents. While leadership is important in setting direction, political currents do not flow from one person alone.

In Scotland today, there is clear, consistent and stable support across the political spectrum for same-sex marriage and abortion rights. Forbes could not change that if she wanted to – and it is important here to say that she clearly does not. In a happier world that would go without saying.

There is an entire hyper-online contingent who have spent the last few weeks breathlessly decrying the Deputy First Minster as a dangerous bigot who is on a monomaniacal personal crusade to roll back their rights. And yet, when Forbes voted last week in support of buffer zones around abortion clinics in line with her Scottish Government colleagues, what did these people have to say? Not a whisper… We cannot keep going on like this. We genuinely cannot do politics if we assume that people who do not share our political beliefs are all mendacious and malicious monsters.

Democracy built on tolerance

I couldn’t help but notice this same phenomenon on Question Time on Thursday evening, this time from the right. Nigel Huddleston, a Conservative Member of Parliament, asked a panellist who had called for the UK to stop selling arms to Israel if she also believed that countries should stop selling arms to Hamas, and rolled back in his seat as if he had just asked the biggest “gotcha” question of all time. His fellow panellist sat there in silence for a few seconds before informing him that the answer was obviously yes. Did he honestly think the answer would be anything else?

Liberal democracy is fundamentally built on tolerance of different views and opinions and a recognition that the people who hold these views are our peers and fellow citizens. It is a melting pot that allows us all to live our lives on our own terms. Every day, something of that seems to slip further away from us.

To that end, it was remarkable to hear Swinney admit that he, like almost every politically active person in the land, has played a role in the slow coarsening of our political discourse. I think most people reading this might admit the same. With the new leadership of the Scottish Government consciously founded in the spirit of good faith cooperation, consensus building and bridging divides, I hope this attitude spreads. We should all hope that this marks the turning of a page in our political story – and work to make it so.

Stewart McDonald is SNP MP for Glasgow South