John Swinney caught in bad weather cancellation during flight to Shetland

First Minister John Swinney’s plane had been due to land on Shetland, but was unable to touch down at Sumburgh Airport

John Swinney has been forced to abandon the formal announcement of a £5 million funding package for the Scottish islands due to bad weather.

The First Minister was due to make the announcement during a visit to Shetland on Friday, but had to cancel because his scheduled flight, due to touch down at Sumburgh Airport, could not land in cloudy conditions.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said on Friday: “Due to the weather in Shetland, the plane carrying the First Minister was unable to land. He looks forward to visiting Shetland in the near future.”

SNP leader John Swinney gives a speech at the launch of the party's general election campaign. Picture: Michael Boyd/PA Wire

It is the latest early hiccup in the newly elected SNP leader’s launch of his party’s election campaign.

Mr Swinney was subjected to a series of questions at a planned media event on Thursday over the suspension recommended for former health secretary Michael Matheson, restricting his opportunity to discuss election priorities.

He had earlier used First Minister’s Questions to attack the standards committee’s probe into Mr Matheson, saying “this process has been prejudiced”.

In a statement earlier this week, it was confirmed £1 million would go towards a new scheme to support the Shetland islands’ net zero 2040 goal, while a further £1m would be invested in an Island Cost Emergency Fund to tackle poverty across Scotland’s six island local authorities.

Sumburgh Airport on Shetland. Picture: TSPL

The remaining £3m will support locally designed island infrastructure projects, which was going to be announced during the visit to Cope Shetland – the island’s leading centre for community reuse and recycling.

Ahead of the planned announcement, Mr Swinney had said: “I have made it clear that I will be First Minister for everyone in Scotland, including our island communities who face a number of unique challenges but have enormous potential. Islanders have been clear that more needs to be done to help them fulfil their ambitions and that is why we are developing a new national islands plan, to be published next year.

“We will listen to island communities and speak with local authorities to ensure the new plan meets their needs. In the meantime we will continue to invest in our islands programme, which over the last three financial years has distributed over £12m to support 61 projects on 50 islands.”