Independence ‘within reach’, says Swinney following poll

Scottish independence is “within reach”, John Swinney has said, after a poll projection put his party just one seat short of a majority at this year’s Holyrood election.

A survey by More in Common this week projected that the SNP would win 64 seats after May, with Reform and Labour battling it out for second place and the Tories potentially falling to joint fourth with the Lib Dems.

The First Minister has set the bar for another vote on independence at the SNP winning a majority of seats, though the UK Government have rejected even discussing granting another vote.

Mr Swinney said the “stream of chaos and scandal” at Westminster – including the recent saga surrounding Lord Peter Mandelson – was a sign that the “Westminster status quo is rapidly unravelling”.

“People in Scotland, watching the news unfold night after night, know that Britain is broken beyond repair – it cannot and it will not be fixed – it is locked in a cycle that only knows chaos, lurching from economic mess one week to corruption scandal the next,” the First Minister said.

“Faced with that reality, momentum is once again building behind the knowledge that independence offers the chance to escape a broken Westminster system and a chance to build our own country anew – that momentum means that an SNP majority and that fresh start with independence is now within reach.

“Here in Scotland the SNP has been delivering on the priorities of Scotland from opening our first GP walk-in centre to freezing rail fares, but that fundamental concept is now ever-present in the minds of Scots – Westminster doesn’t work for Scotland.

“The key question in May is now clear – we can either stay stuck to this broken Westminster system, or we can build a future beyond broken, Brexit Britain.

“We can choose a new Scotland through the fresh start of independence.”

The comments come at the end of a week where the First Minister has been forced to defend his top law officer.

Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC was accused by opposition MSPs of “corruption” after she updated the First Minister on the embezzlement charges against the former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell weeks before they were made public.