John Swinney has vowed to restart plans for a second independence referendum within days after the SNP’s thumping election victory.
The First Minister said he’ll table a vote this week when parliament reconvenes approving the development of a Section 30 request to Keir Starmer for a new vote to leave the UK.
The Nationalists won a fifth term in office with a commanding 58 Holyrood seats – although fell short of the majority Swinney had targeted to bolster his case for IndyRef2.
Meanwhile defeated Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar – whose party came joint second with Reform on 17 seats – is set to stay in post for the “foreseeable future”, party sources said.
View 5 Images(Image: Robert Perry/PA Wire)
During the campaign, Sarwar refused to say what he’d do if he lost, instead vowing to win the election and become First Minister despite bleak polling.
As the election post-mortem begins, Labour insiders have told the Sunday Mail how, even up until the last week of campaigning, candidates were being briefed by the leadership to prepare for ministerial positions.
Instead the SNP won emphatically with Swinney to return as Scotland’s FM – and despite falling seven seats short of an outright majority, he said on Saturday: “For the fourth election in a row, there is a pro-independence mandate in the new Scottish Parliament.”
With the pro-indy Scottish Greens coming third with a record 15 seats, Swinney added: “There are now more pro-independence MSPs than at any time in the history of the Scottish Parliament. The way forward on this must be made in Scotland.
“The results across the UK made clear why the need for independence is so urgent.
“Nigel Farage is now galloping towards Downing Street, and the prospect of a Reform-led government is more likely than not.”
It comes despite Swinney directly linking the request for a new referendum to achieving an outright SNP majority during the campaign.
He previously suggested a majority of seats – 65 or more, which the SNP only achieved once under Alex Salmond in 2011 – was needed to “break the logjam”.
Despite pro-independence majorities in the Scottish Parliament since 2016, Westminster ultimately controls the constitution and has repeatedly rebuffed demands to issue a Section 30 order to allow a fresh plebiscite.
If he’d won a majority, Swinney had vowed to bring forward a vote to “approve the development” of a Section 30 request on the first sitting day of the new parliament.
View 5 ImagesFirst Minister and SNP leader John Swinney speaking during a press conference at Grassmarket Apex Hotel, Edinburgh.(Image: David Young/PA Wire)
Asked at a press conference in Edinburgh on Saturday if he will still do that, the First Minister said: “I certainly intend to carry on with my plans, yes.”
He also hailed the victory of Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru in Wales, who are now the largest party in the Senedd while Labour were decimated.
Swinney said: “There are now set to be first ministers in Wales, Northern Ireland and in Scotland all committed to fundamental constitutional change.
“If Westminster has not yet grasped the significance of this moment, then it certainly will come to appreciate it in the weeks and months ahead.
“What people in London like to refer to rather patronisingly as the Celtic fringe is very much about to become centre stage.”
With a brutal set of results across the UK for Labour, party insiders lamented the impact of Keir Starmer’s hapless premiership.
Sarwar didn’t appear in public on Saturday but sources told of his “tremendous frustration” at how Starmer’s botched first two years in office had derailed his bid to become Scotland’s first Labour first minister since 2007.
Sarwar broke with Starmer in February and called for him to resign, saying there had been too many mistakes in No 10.
View 5 ImagesThe relationship between Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer has nosedived since 2024(Image: Getty Images)
A senior party source said: “Every part of the Labour electoral coalition has an emotionally hostile response to us right now because of Keir Starmer.
“We have a Prime Minister who is so universally unpopular that it makes it impossible for the party to get heard.”
They insisted Sarwar, who became Scottish Labour leader in 2021, will fight on “for the foreseeable future” with the party already eyeing next year’s Scottish council elections.
They stopped short of saying Sarwar will stay on as party leader or as an MSP for the whole five-year parliamentary term.
But internal recriminations over Labour’s awful results have been exploding into the open, with former leftwing MSP Neil Findlay saying Sarwar and his deputy Jackie Baillie should quit along with Starmer.
He blasted: “Anas Sarwar and Jackie Baillie had complete control of all elements of the party. They had five years to develop attractive, exciting policies – they produced none…
“Their disastrous strategy delivered the lowest level of support at a Scottish election.”
The Sunday Mail has also learned how Labour candidates were receiving “delusional” briefings telling them to prepare to replace the SNP.
A separate Labour source said: “Up until last week candidates were being told to prepare for government and to become ministers.
“The leadership seemed to genuinely believe that because they won the Hamilton by-election anything was possible and that there was a route to becoming First Minister for Anas.
“We really do need to go back to the drawing board here – the strategy of talking about change a lot without a strong policy platform and new ideas meant we had nothing to grab the attention of voters.
“Both Starmer and Sarwar need to take responsibility for the failures here but both seem determined to continue in their jobs as if nothing has happened.”
View 5 ImagesLeader of Reform UK Scotland Malcolm Offord and Thomas Kerr MSP arriving to meet up with newly elected Reform UK Scotland MSPs in Glasgow, following the 2026 Holyrood elections. (Image: Steve Welsh/PA Wire)
Meanwhile, Swinney said he’d lock out Reform’s Scottish leader Malcolm Offord from cross-party cooperation talks at St Andrew’s House this week – inviting all other parties except the right-wing insurgents.
Offord, who posed in Glasgow yesterday with Reform’s 17-strong group of new MSPs, branded the move “arrogant, petty and deeply undemocratic”.
Lord Offord said: “This is a disgraceful attempt by John Swinney and the SNP to silence the hundreds of thousands of people across Scotland who are backing Reform UK.”
He added: “The SNP can lock the doors of St Andrew’s House if they like but they cannot shut down the growing demand for real change in Scotland.”
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