News about John Swinney

John Swinney has a superpower and yesterday he unleashed it on the opposition. The First Minister's special ability is that he is possibly the most boring man in the country. He exudes dullness. Tedium is his vocation. Swinney sports his banality like armoured plating; every barrage just bounces off. Douglas Ross fired in first with a succession of queries about the Skye Live music event at the weekend. One woman died and another fell seriously ill right outside the Portree Community Hospital, which was closed. In a sombre, measured tone, the First Minister doled out condolences and sympathies, before stating his wish to see the hospital provide 24/7 emergency care.

New First Minister John Swinney and SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn both took umbrage at a speech by the Prime Minister on Monday in which he said their separatist drive was a threat to the UK's future. They hit the roof because in the same speech he also name checked Russia, China and Iran, and suggested he was lumping the independence movement into the same basket. Mr Flynn used his appearance at Prime Minister's Questions to demand an apology for the 'puerile and pathetic' remarks. But Mr Sunak refused, replying: 'His party is indeed a threat to the integrity of the UK, I hate to remind him but it is literally their entire purpose.'

The SNP is set to admit that Scotland is in the grip of a 'housing emergency' today to avoid an humiliating Holyrood defeat. New First Minister John Swinney (pictured right with deputy Kate Forbes) has been forced into making the declaration after Scottish Labour tabled a motion condemning the situation. The chaotic breakdown of the coalition with the Greens means the separatists no longer have a reliable majority in the Scottish Parliament. As a result Mr Swinney could have lost the first vote of his tenure as Labour's Anas Sarwar (top left) and the Tories' Douglas Ross (bottom left) turn up the heat.

Policing was promised a re-birth more than a decade ago - but now exists in a state of seemingly never-ending financial crisis. The boss of the single force, set up by the SNP in 2013, is fighting to prevent it becoming a purely 'reactive' service - capable of tackling only serious crime.

Kate Forbes faces being 'marginalised in a Cabinet of Sturgeon loyalists', a leading political academic has claimed. The new Deputy First Minister and Economy Secretary yesterday pledged to get the country 'firing on all cylinders' by removing barriers to investment. But James Mitchell, a professor of public policy at Edinburgh University, warned that John Swinney's failure to overhaul the Cabinet will leave his new deputy vulnerable.

Scotland's under-pressure police force has been bombarded with an astonishing 10,000 hate crime complaints since the SNP 's law came into force. The number of allegations has broken through the landmark figure in little over a month, The Mail on Sunday can disclose. However, 90 per cent of the complaints - around 9,000 - were not regarded as crimes by police, confirming early fears that many claims under the new law would be vexatious. The Hate Crime Act - introduced on April 1 - created a new offence of 'stirring up hatred' relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex. After it was introduced, police were hit with a flood of complaints - many anonymous.

Many will recall shocking images of rampaging masked inmates on Scottish prison rooftops, hurling tiles and defiantly parading terrified prison officer hostages

The other day I was faffing about with my Netflix channel, pressed the wrong button and landed on a television station. I know. Radical. Some sort of lifestyle programme was airing, on a channel whose name I'd never come across before. I flicked the remote to another station, then another, realising I had hundreds of TV channels that I have never got around to watching. Ever. My first thought - well actually it was my second, my first thought was that I better get on to Virgin and change my ludicrous, hundreds-of-channels-I-never-watch package - was, who watches this stuff?

John Swinney is facing the 'shortest honeymoon in political history' after two polls put the SNP on course for catastrophic back-to-back defeats. In a blow to Nationalist hopes that he would be a clean break from past troubles, the latest surveys show the new First Minister failing to stem the dramatic haemorrhaging of support. Mr Swinney, who took over as SNP leader on Monday, yesterday set the clock ticking on yet another countdown to independence after claiming Scotland could exit the Union within five years. But polling suggests he and his party are increasingly out of touch with voters.

The beleaguered SNP have suffered a fresh blow after a new opinion poll put them seven points behind Labour in Scotland ahead of the general election. A new Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey of Westminster voting intention among Scots found Labour on 38 per cent support - a five point rise since last month. This compared to the SNP on 31 per cent, down one point, the Conservatives on 14 per cent, down three points, and the Liberal Democrats on 8 per cent. The Scottish Greens, who were kicked out of power-sharing at Holyrood last month by the SNP, were up two points to 4 per cent. The seven-point lead for Labour - when Scottish voters were asked who they would back if a UK general election were held tomorrow - is the largest lead recorded by any polling company for Labour in Scotland since June 2014. It will serve as a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he looks to end 14 years of Conservative rule at Westminster and become prime minister. The SNP were plunged into fresh turmoil when Humza Yousaf ended the party's Bute House power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens, before then announcing his resignation. But John Swinney, Mr Yousaf's replacement as SNP leader and Scottish First Minister, has tried to put a brave face on the party's travails. He today desperately claimed he could make Scotland independent within five years. The First Minister claimed the arguments for breaking up the UK are 'compelling', despite acknowledging the chaos that has been wracking the SNP.

John Swinney claimed the arguments for breaking up the UK are 'compelling', despite acknowledging the chaos that has been wracking the SNP. In a series of interviews, Mr Swinney also played down concerns about Kate Forbes - a devout Christian who previously opposed gay marriage - becoming his deputy. He stressed that the separatists will still be 'on the side' of LGBT voters. The comments came as a Savanta survey found Labour ahead of the SNP on Westminster voting intention - the first time the firm has given Keir Starmer 's party the advantage.

Is Graeme McCormick still available? The veteran SNP activist stood aside and let John Swinney become leader without a contest, but on the strength of the First Minister's first parliamentary outing, Mr McCormick was robbed. Swinney choked. It was his debut First Minister's Questions and he was at turns hesitant, rambling, underbriefed and trying too hard. Was it an unmitigated disaster? No, in the sense that he didn't set himself on fire or accidentally declare war on Norway, but it was bad.

Mr Swinney was accused of backing a return to the 'repressive values of the 1950s' after appointing gay marriage opponent Kate Forbes as his deputy to avoid a power struggle. The remarks by Green leader Patrick Harvie - who was until recently a junior coalition minister - came as Mr Swinney faced First Minister's Questions for the first time since being sworn in. He told Holyrood he would bring 'fresh leadership' - despite having spent nine years as deputy first minister under Nicola Sturgeon until she quit last year.

John Swinney has appointed his team as he tries to stabilise the SNP after the shock collapse of Humza Yousaf's premiership. In the most eye-catching move, Mr Swinney has made Kate Forbes his deputy despite previous clashes about her devout Christian views on issues like gay marriage. However, the First Minister - slated by critics as a 'continuity candidate' and 'Sturgeon apologist' - has also quietly dropped the controversial job Mr Humza had created explicitly to help break up the UK.

The word 'continuity' was rendered toxic by Humza Yousaf's use of it to describe his own candidacy for the SNP leadership last year. It turned out that continuity was the last thing Scotland needed: continued failure to deliver on schools, hospitals, the economy and ferries. But now the new First Minister, John Swinney, has rubber-stamped the Cabinet bequeathed to him by his predecessor. There are only two new faces, and both were ministers until Mr Yousaf became First Minister. The first, rather obviously, is Mr Swinney himself.

John Swinney has been sworn in at the Court of Session after being elected to the post at Holyrood yesterday. Mr Swinney's family, including his wife Elizabeth, thirteen-year-old son Matthew and brother David, accompanied him for the ceremony. Attention now turns to his Cabinet, with questions over whether Kate Forbes will be handed the key post as his deputy amid tensions over her devout Christian views. Despite swipes that he is a 'Sturgeon apologist' and 'continuity' option, Mr Swinney was the only SNP leadership candidate when nominations closed on Monday.

WHY did he do it? All the drama over the past couple of weeks - from the almighty strop taken by the Scottish Greens, to Alex Salmond 's brief return to relevance, to John Swinney's unlikely recasting as Scotland's latest Father of the Nation - has rather obscured this question. Why, two weeks ago, did Humza Yousaf suddenly pull the plug on his Green partners, crashing his political career in the process? As the dust settles on an extraordinary few days in Scottish politics, it's a question worth returning to. The answer, I believe, tells us something important about where Scotland stands as we begin the long run-in to the 2026 Holyrood election. It's also, I'd suggest, a cause for optimism.

The selection of Mr Swinney as the next leader of his party was nothing to do with what was best for Scotland and everything to do with managing a chaotic SNP. The people of Scotland didn't want platitudes from Mr Swinney, they wanted action on issues that mattered to them.

John Swinney was elected to the post in a Holyrood vote, with the Greens ensuring he could not be blocked. The confirmation came hours after Humza Yousaf signed his resignation letter to the King, and gave a valedictory speech slamming 'bigots'. Mr Swinney becomes the third holder of the top role in barely a year.

Women's rights campaigners have warned they will fight any plans by the new SNP leader to resurrect gender self-ID reforms. John Swinney (left) has refused to rule out revisiting gender self-ID plans when he takes over as First Minister, saying instead he would engage in 'respectful dialogue' and would consider 'the best steps to take' before deciding on possible new gender laws. The controversial laws, which would have made it simpler for trans people to legally change their sex without the need for a medical sign-off, were backed by MSPs but then blocked by UK ministers. Grassroots women's groups, who provided robust resistance to the Gender Recognition Reform Act, insist such reforms pose an existential threat to sex-based rights and warned they are prepared to fight any plans to repackage the reforms. Inset is Outgoing Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf signing his resignation letter today

John Swinney is set to become the third Scottish First Minister in barely a year after the dramatic implosion of Humza Yousaf. Despite swipes that he is a 'Sturgeon apologist' and 'continuity' option, Mr Swinney was the only candidate running when nominations closed yesterday. He managed to convince former finance secretary Kate Forbes to join his team rather than challenge him, in a move billed a 'stitch-up' by opponents. MSPs are expected to vote on him becoming First Minister at Holyrood today, with Opposition parties not seeking to block him despite the SNP being short of a majority.

John Swinney yesterday seized control of the SNP after a 'stitch-up' meant he was the only candidate for party leader. The veteran Nationalist politician is on course to become the third First Minister in just over a year this week after he succeeded Humza Yousaf unopposed. He was the only nominee after he persuaded former Finance Secretary Kate Forbes to join his team rather than challenge him, in a move billed a 'stitch-up' by opponents. He also survived a late scare by persuading activist Graeme McCormick not to go ahead with forcing a leadership contest despite securing the support required to stand. In his victory speech in Glasgow yesterday, he acknowledged the scale of the infighting and crises which have engulfed the SNP and admitted the party has been through a 'rough, tough time'.

The Greens have been accused of trying to hold John Swinney to ransom before he is even sworn in as First Minister after setting out a series of demands. Patrick Harvie, who lost his ministerial job when Humza Yousaf ended the Bute House Agreement, yesterday said the new SNP leader must remain committed to progressive policies to tackle the climate crisis and inequality. But it led to fears Mr Swinney's minority government will continue to be dictated to by the Greens, despite the parties no longer being part of a power-sharing agreement. The Greens helped force out Mr Yousaf after confirming they had planned to back a Tory vote of no confidence in him.

Twenty years ago, John Swinney was hounded from the leadership of the SNP after a disastrous four years in charge. Humiliation for the Nationalists at successive elections during the Swinney era saw him written off as a failure. Today, SNP members have united behind Mr Swinney in the hope he can save their party from electoral oblivion. The 60-year-old MSP for Perthshire North was the sole candidate when nominations to succeed Humza Yousaf closed yesterday. Mr Swinney will now be nominated as his party's candidate to become the seventh First Minister of Scotland. He will inherit a party mired in scandal, divided on both independence strategy and controversial gender ideology, and plummeting in the polls.