John Swinney's underwhelming blueprint moves SNP permanently away from Greens amid 'cowardice' accusations

There is little to get excited about in John Swinney’s first Programme for Government - but missing pledges have left the Scottish Government open to accusations of “cowardice”.

That charge was levelled against the First Minister by Greens co-leader Lorna Slater, who just four months ago was a Holyrood minister.

First Minister John Swinney and finance secretary Shona Robison (Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

Mr Swinney’s choices in his underwhelming prospectus for the coming year take aim at the now-former coalition partners.

READ MORE: John Swinney shelves commitment to free school meals for all Scotland primary pupils

The most obvious blunder by a First Minister genuinely committed to eradicating child poverty is watering down a previous commitment on free school meals. This is almost certainly down to a lack of money, but such a song and dance was made over a focus on ending child poverty. That pledge is now made much more difficult to take seriously.

There are some welcome measures in the Programme for Government that will help tackle child poverty, including expanding the Fairer Future Partnerships. But the measures set out do feel like they are tinkering around the edges - made to look even more tiring given the taming of its free school meals vow. It is clearly all down to funding.

The stark budget pressures on the Scottish Government are clearly holding back ambitions, with Mr Swinney explicitly telling MSPs that “in this challenging fiscal environment, we cannot continue to deliver public services as we did in years past”.

The economy looks bleak and while there are few tangible promises in the Programme for Government, a year of calm and stability would set up the SNP for offering more in the lead-up to the 2026 Holyrood election, if the economic climate turns brighter next year.

But Mr Swinney has set down his marker of irritating the Greens, potentially in a bid to win back support from traditional middle-class voters who may have abandoned the party during the Bute House Agreement.

The Greens were the first party to highlight the U-turn on free school meals and were equally fizzing about the failure by Mr Swinney to commit to legislation to end conversion therapy. His task to follow through on a complete ban, as has been previously promised by the SNP, should be made even easier, given Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to do the same at Westminster.

One of Mr Swinney’s other top priorities is to tackle the climate crisis. Many will find some of the vows announced hard to swallow, coming one day after Shona Robison drained the remaining £460 million of ScotWind revenue to plug a budget black hole, after announced cuts to biodiversity, active travel and other net zero and energy projects.

The controversial Heat in Buildings Bill, that will signal the end of fossil fuel heating systems, once the baby of Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie, has survived the Swinney treatment. But the document warns the plan must be “deliverable and affordable for households and businesses”.

The SNP is wrestling with its reputation for being a politically progressive government. Other pieces of legislation that were potentially being lined up for the next year are also missing, including a long-promised human rights Bill.

Mr Swinney has set out some welcome commitments over funding for the NHS and measures to ramp up housebuilding. But we will have to wait and see whether throwing more money at under-strain services will start to turn things around.