{"id":7072,"date":"2025-07-18T21:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T21:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/7072\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T21:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T21:30:12","slug":"snp-leader-hits-panic-button-with-push-for-another-independence-referendum-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/7072\/","title":{"rendered":"SNP leader hits ‘panic button’ with push for another independence referendum | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The SNP’s John Swinney<\/a> was accused of hitting the “independence panic button” after making a fresh push to break up the UK. The Scottish First Minister pledged to “turn the heat up” on the UK Government to allow a second independence referendum as part of his latest strategy to achieve separation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Writing in the National newspaper on Friday, the SNP<\/a> leader pledged to increase support for Scotland leaving the UK and stressed the importance of supporters of independence backing the SNP<\/a> at next year’s Holyrood election. But Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie accused him of hitting the “independence panic button”, adding that Scots will be “shaking their heads”.<\/p>\n

She added: “Twenty-five years ago, the then SNP<\/a> leader, John Swinney, claimed that independence was ‘closer than ever’. Now he is attempting to lead his troops up the hill once more – but even they don’t buy it.<\/p>\n

“John Swinney offers absolutely no vision and no hope for the people of Scotland.<\/p>\n

“It is time to turn our backs on John Swinney’s old, failed politics of the past and to choose a better Scotland with better leadership.”<\/p>\n

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: “Scots are scunnered with John Swinney and the SNP<\/a>‘s endless obsession with independence.<\/p>\n

“The nationalists are continuing to prioritise their own interests rather than focusing on what truly impacts the lives of Scots.<\/p>\n

“Patients cannot get a GP appointment, our economy is flatlining, and standards have plummeted in our schools.<\/p>\n

“That is what John Swinney should be focusing on, rather than rehashing the same old arguments on independence that Scots are not interested in.”<\/p>\n

Since the first independence referendum in 2014, successive UK governments have repeatedly turned down calls for another ballot.<\/p>\n

The UK Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that only Westminster can allow another poll.<\/p>\n

Mr Swinney set out a three-point plan including boosting support for leaving the UK, putting pressure on Westminster and delivering an “emphatic win” for the SNP<\/a> in next year’s Holyrood election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The SNP’s John Swinney was accused of hitting the “independence panic button” after making a fresh push to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,3992,50,3991,3993,3990,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-7072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-john-swinney","tag-news","tag-scottish-independence","tag-scottish-independence-referendum","tag-snp","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7072","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=7072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}