John Swinney to rethink independence strategy after disastrous election result

John Swinney has committed to rethinking the SNP's approach to independence after his party suffered a humiliating defeat in the general election, as Sir Keir Starmer pledged the country could “move forward together” on the back of Labour’s landslide victory.

The First Minister admitted the SNP had "failed to convince people of the urgency" of the issue and now needed to "take stock" and reflect.

The pledge came as Sir Keir got straight to work assembling his Cabinet after promising to rebuild trust in politics and restore hope to the nation.

First Minister John Swinney speaking to the media at The Port of Leith Distillery in Edinburgh, following the landslide general election victory for the Labour Party. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

Rachel Reeves was confirmed as Britain’s first female chancellor, Angela Rayner is Sir Keir’s Deputy Prime Minister and retained the levelling up, housing and communities brief, and Yvette Cooper is Home Secretary.

David Lammy was appointed Foreign Secretary, putting to bed some speculation over whether he would get the post he shadowed in opposition.

The appointments contained no major surprises as Ian Murray was appointed Scotland Secretary, Pat McFadden, who played a central role in shaping Labour’s election campaign, was named Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Wes Streeting was named Health Secretary.

John Healey received the key defence post, while Bridget Phillipson was appointed as Education Secretary and Ed Miliband as Energy Secretary.

Following a brutal set of results for the Conservatives, Rishi Sunak announced he would quit as Tory leader and used his final speech in Downing Street to apologise to the British people and the Conservative Party. After 648 of the 650 Commons seats had been declared, Labour had a majority of 176.

Labour had 412 seats and the Tories 121 – the worst result in the party’s history. But low turnout – 59.85 per cent, which is the lowest at a general election since 2001 – underlined Sir Keir’s message about the need to rebuild trust in the political system after 14 years of Tory rule.

Labour matched its dominance south of the Border by triumphing in seats across the Central Belt in Scotland, with all six constituencies in Glasgow turning red, as well as four out of five in Edinburgh.

However, the SNP managed to defeat the outgoing Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, partly because of the relatively high vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Mr Swinney’s party has dropped from 48 MPs in 2019 to just nine, with one seat left to declare. Meanwhile, Labour has won 37 seats in Scotland, compared to the single MP it returned previously.

The result in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire – which the Liberal Democrats believe they have won – has been delayed until Saturday. The Tories and the Lib Dems have secured five seats each so far.

The SNP manifesto said the party would push for a second independence referendum if it won a majority of seats in Scotland.

Addressing journalists and activists on Friday at a distillery in Leith, Mr Swinney said: "Our manifesto for this election said that if we won a majority of seats in Scotland, that would intensify pressure to enact that mandate. Essentially, it would provide us with the opportunity to take forward that policy commitment. I have to accept that we failed to convince people of the urgency of independence in this election campaign, and therefore we need to take the time to consider and to reflect on how we deliver our commitment to independence, which remains absolute.”

Asked if he was putting independence on the back burner, Mr Swinney said: "We've got to reflect on the fact that the result has given us a setback – that we failed to get across the urgency of independence at this particular moment."

However, the First Minister said independence was not being taken off the table. He said: "In relation to the question of independence, we've got to take stock after last night because people have given a greater priority to removing a Tory government than to arguing for independence. We have to reflect on that, we've got to consider the implications of that, and determine how we proceed as a party."

The SNP’s high-profile casualties included Joanna Cherry, who lost Edinburgh South West after a 26.5 per cent swing to Labour. She told journalists: "I fear that under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP has squandered opportunities to advance the cause of independence, and squandered opportunities to continue our previous reputation for governing well.”

Meanwhile, Kirsten Oswald, the SNP’s deputy Westminster leader, was defeated in East Renfrewshire by Blair McDougall, the former campaign director for Better Together during the 2014 referendum.

Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, was re-elected in Aberdeen South with a reduced majority of 3,758. He said it had been “a very difficult and black night for all of us”, and accepted the party’s independence mandate was now a hard sell.

“What we need to focus on now as a party is how we get ourselves into winning shape in the next 18 months in the build up to the Scottish Parliament election,” he said.

“That’s going to require a lot of effort from people and it’s probably going to require some people to open the curtain and look at some of their own skeletons and realise that we’ve not been doing things as well as we possibly could have been. – myself included in that regard.

“So it’s a time for reflection, it’s a time to listen, and hopefully a time to rebuild and come back better.”

Scottish Labour has its sights set on the 2026 Holyrood election. However, the SNP will hope the tough decisions facing Sir Keir Starmer in his first couple of years as Prime Minister will foster a growing disillusionment with his party in Scotland.

Ms Sturgeon, who appeared as a pundit on ITV, said the SNP was not “dead and buried” when it came to the 2026 Scottish Parliament election. “I think the mistake opposition parties will make is … just assuming the SNP is dead and buried for 2026,” she said. “Yes, the SNP has to re-establish trust on some of the core competence in government issues. We’ve been in government for 17 years – this has been a really difficult time for any party of government, but that doesn’t let us off the hook.”

Mr Swinney said he took full responsibility for the result, arguing people were "absolutely desperate" to get rid of the Tories. He said he had not given any thought to standing down, and remained committed to leading the SNP.

Mr Swinney only took over as party leader in May, just a couple of weeks before the general election was called. He was tasked with steadying the ship after a stormy period for the SNP following Ms Sturgeon’s resignation last year.

He will now have to steer it in a new direction, with a much-reduced crew.

“The Scottish National Party needs to be healed and it needs to heal its relationship with the people of Scotland, and I am absolutely committed to doing that,” Mr Swinney said.

In Edinburgh, as the votes were counted, one gleeful Labour politician said the Nationalists were not used to losing. It will be interesting, they said, to see how they cope.