He also questioned the future of Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister if the SNP won a majority in the May Holyrood elections.
The SNP leader said “yes”, when Sir Trevor asked: “Obviously, you want to win a majority in May. If you do win a majority, are you going to take that as a green light to demand another referendum on independence?”
Mr Swinney added: “I’m being straightforward with people in Scotland that if people in Scotland want Scotland to become independent, the SNP has got to do really well in this forthcoming election and it’s got to achieve a majority in the Scottish Parliament because when that happened before in 2011, it led to a referendum in 2014 and the Scots were able to determine their own constitution.”
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Asked what he would say to Scots if Sir Keir turns down another referendum request, Mr Swinney said: “I think there’s two things about that.
“First of all, the United Kingdom is allegedly a partnership of equals, so Scotland has got a democratic right to decide our own future.
“And secondly, if I win a majority in the Scottish Parliament elections in May of this year, I don’t think Keir Starmer will be the Prime Minister.”
The SNP is currently the largest party in the Scottish Parliament with 60 MSPs out of 129.
In 2014, Scottish voters backed remaining in the UK by 55.3% to 44.7%.