{"id":475903,"date":"2026-03-14T21:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T21:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/475903\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T21:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T21:56:07","slug":"uk-faces-seismic-moment-as-nationalists-target-election-wins-says-john-swinney-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/475903\/","title":{"rendered":"UK faces \u2018seismic moment\u2019 as nationalists target election wins, says John Swinney | Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK is facing an \u201cabsolutely seismic moment\u201d, John Swinney has said, with the prospect of the election of first ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland<\/a> in May who are all committed to the break-up of the union.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Scottish National party\u2019s campaign conference ahead of the Scottish parliament elections, the first minister told delegates: \u201cFor people watching around the world, there could be no clearer sign that Westminster\u2019s time is up.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the prospect of nationalist parties winning in the Welsh Senedd and the Northern Ireland assembly, as well as at Holyrood, and support for Scottish independence polling consistently about 50%, Swinney said Scotland<\/a> \u201ccan lead this great wave of change\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ahead of an SNP campaign during which Swinney has pledged to put independence front and centre, despite that strategy backfiring at the 2024 general election, he said: \u201cWe are closer to becoming independent than we have ever been. Support for our cause has never been at such sustained high levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SNP is currently leading the polls for Holyrood, ahead of Reform UK and Scottish Labour \u2013 whose previously buoyant support has collapsed in the face of repeated Westminster missteps. A YouGov survey last month put Scottish Labour on 15%, behind Reform at 20% and the SNP at 34%.<\/p>\n

Praising the \u201csense of community\u201d shown by Glaswegians in the hours and days after the devastating fire that gutted a historic building in the city centre last Sunday, Swinney told the conference: \u201cWe will stand by our biggest city in its hour of need.\u201d<\/p>\n

He announced a \u00a310m recovery fund to support the council, businesses and agencies<\/a> and said the Scottish government will also underwrite the \u00a31m cost of clearing the fire-ravaged site, adding that the money \u201cshould not come from the public services that Glaswegians rely upon\u201d.<\/p>\n

Framing a series of voter offers as \u201cbuilding blocks of an independent country\u201d, Swinney also promised that if re-elected his government would roll out subsidised childcare, based on family income, for every child from nine months old to the end of primary school and available 52 weeks a year.<\/p>\n

The SNP leader also said he would create a \u00a3100m First Homes Fund to give up to \u00a310,000 in support for a deposit for first-time buyers, to break young people out of the \u201crent trap\u201d in Scotland and help \u201ca generation let down by Westminster\u201d.<\/p>\n

Countering Westminster parties who have criticised his government for speaking out on world events, Swinney told the audience: \u201cWe will not stay silent while the world burns,\u201d before calling on the US and Israel to end their war on Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranian regime have terrorised their own population. Now, those self-same civilians are dying at the hands of American and Israeli bombs. So let me be clear: the unjustifiable actions of the United States and Israel have no basis under international law. They must stop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK is facing an \u201cabsolutely seismic moment\u201d, John Swinney has said, with the prospect of the election…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-475903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}