First Minister John Swinney has called for a “legal referendum recognised by all” on Scottish independence if the SNP secures a majority at the Holyrood elections.
Writing in a column in the Daily Record, Mr Swinney said that in the 17 years since the 2008 financial crash “people feel like they are working harder than ever, but not seeing any improvement in their living standards”.
He said the UK economy is “fundamentally failing to deliver for ordinary people” as well as generating insufficient funding for public services.
The SNP leader called for the May 2026 Holyrood elections to be “a springboard for Scotland taking charge of our own destiny”.
He said the situation had got worse since the 2014 referendum, and wrote: “Think what could have been achieved had we not been forced to spend so much time and money trying to mitigate the ongoing damage of Brexit.
“Or the carnage unleashed by Liz Truss’s mini-budget. Or the years of austerity, or Westminster cuts like the Winter Fuel Payment.
“We were told we didn’t need independence and we just needed a Labour government – but look how that has turned out.”
He wrote that “independence is the catalyst that will deliver a better future for us all” and that “with Scotland’s energy resources in Scotland’s hands, we can reduce bills for consumers and cut costs for businesses”.
Mr Swinney revealed he hoped to deliver an SNP majority similar to 2011 in a bid to “secure a legal referendum recognised by all” and had submitted a motion to the SNP conference proposing that “we work to deliver a majority of SNP MSPs in the Scottish Parliament to secure that referendum”.
He pledged to unveil “radical policies that we know will transform Scotland” in the coming months, and to “break the logjam and end this frustration that we all feel”.
Mr Swinney added: “We must be ready to follow the path which we know can lead us to an independent state.”
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: “John Swinney is like a broken record. In a bid to silence internal critics of his weak leadership, he has thrown diehard nationalists some more red meat on the one issue they all agree on: independence.
“Ordinary Scots are sick and tired of the SNP’s obsession with breaking up the UK.
“The public want John Swinney to focus on fixing the damage his government has done in decimating essential services such as schools and the NHS at the same time as making Scotland the highest taxed part of the UK.”
