Scottish independence ‘within reach’ as Westminster ‘unravelling’ amid scandals, Swinney says
John Swinney has declared Scottish independence “within reach” after a new poll projection showed his party just one seat short of a majority in this year’s Holyrood election.
A poll by More in Common this week predicts the Scottish National Party (SNP) will gain 64 seats in May, with Reform and Labor battling for second place and the Conservatives potentially falling into fourth place alongside the Liberal Democrats.
The First Minister set the bar for a new independence vote with the SNP winning a majority of seats, but the UK government has rejected argument for a new referendum.
Mr Swinney argued that the “flux of chaos and scandal” at Westminster, including the recent controversy surrounding Lord Peter Mandelson, showed “the Westminster status quo is rapidly unraveling”.
“People who watch the news unfold night after night in Scotland know that Britain is broken beyond repair – it cannot and will not be fixed – locked in a cycle that knows only chaos, lurching from economic turmoil one week to corruption scandal the next,” the Prime Minister said.
“Faced with this reality, momentum is once again building behind the knowledge that independence offers a chance to escape the broken Westminster system and rebuild our own country, momentum that means an SNP majority and a new start with independence are now within reach.
“Here in Scotland the SNP is delivering on Scotland’s priorities, from opening our first GP walk-in center to freezing rail fares, but that basic concept is now ever-present in Scots’ minds; Westminster doesn’t work for Scotland.
“The key question in May is now clear – we can either stick to this broken Westminster system or build a future beyond a broken Brexit Britain.
“We can choose a new Scotland with a new beginning of independence.”
The comments come at the end of a week in which the First Minister was forced to defend her senior legal official.
Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC has been accused of “corruption” by opposition MSPs after briefing the First Minister on embezzlement charges against former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell weeks before they were made public.
