SNP leader John Swinney pounced on Labour’s woes today by claiming that cutting ties with Sir Keir Starmer’s Government at Westminster is ‘the fresh start Scotland needs’.
The Scottish First Minister, at an SNP campaign event on Monday morning, tried to revitalise his party’s long-running push to break up the United Kingdom.
Mr Swinney claimed that independence could improve living standards for Scots and help share the nation’s wealth – including from North Sea oil and gas – more fairly.
Both Sir Keir and Labour’s popularity has slumped in Scotland since last year’s general election, when the party won 37 seats north of the border.
It has left Labour figures fearing their party could finish far behind the SNP at the Scottish Parliament elections on 7 May next year.
Some have even spoken about the prospect of Labour finishing third in the Holyrood contests, behind both the SNP and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Swinney said that Westminster is ‘fundamentally broken and beyond repair’ as he attempted to compound Sir Keir’s misery.
But opponents said the First Minister should end his ‘independence obsession’ and instead fix creaking public services in Scotland after 18 years of SNP government.
Mr Swinney and Sir Keir spoke last week when both of them attended the British-Irish Council Summit in Wales.
The First Minister said on Monday: ‘Westminster control of Scotland’s resources does not work for us.
‘We see that in their complete failure to support key industries in Scotland.
‘That is why, when I met the Prime Minister on Friday, I made clear the existential nature of the current threat.
‘I left him in no doubt that, unless he changes course, what we face is a second wave of 80s-style deindustrialisation, 80s-style economic devastation.
‘If Keir Starmer does not change course, he will enter our national story as a second [Margaret] Thatcher, a second destroyer of industry, a second destroyer of communities, and Scotland will not forget.
‘That is why we speak of independence as the fresh start Scotland needs.’
Mr Swinney added: ‘A fresh start because with Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands, our nation, our fellow citizens, can finally see the benefit of our vast wealth.
‘Let us not let Westminster take the decisions and take the wealth.
‘We will be better off with independence, better off with Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands.
‘That is the fresh start that only independence offers. It is the fresh start our nation can choose in May next year, only by voting SNP.’
Mr Swinney said the UK’s oil and gas industry – which is largely based in the north east of Scotland – had been ‘left high and dry’ by the energy profits levy.
The charge was imposed by the previous Tory government at Westminster, and has been continued by Sir Keir’s administration.
The First Minister claimed the windfall tax is ‘sucking the economic life out of one of our country’s most dynamic and important industries’.
He added that leaving the UK would allow Scotland to use its ‘energy wealth to deliver a true transformation of our society and our economy’.
Mr Swinney said analysis produced for the energy regulator Ofgem had indicated that a ‘different policy approach would enable Scotland to have the lowest wholesale electricity prices in western Europe’.
And he said that this, together with scrapping ‘unnecessary costs like the UK’s nuclear levy’ could be used to ‘deliver big benefits here in Scotland’.
The First Minister said that this ‘includes being able to lower household electricity bills by over one third’.
Mr Swinney said this would be ‘a big saving for families across Scotland, offering the real hope that cost-of-living pressures will finally begin to ease’.
But he also spoke about how other sectors could benefit. ‘Think what that will mean for our NHS,’ the First Minister stated.
‘Less money spent on energy bills means more money to spend on doctors and nurses, on more operations and appointments.’
He insisted there was ‘no doubt a policy of low energy costs for Scottish businesses can be as transformational for our country and its prospects as the policy of low corporation tax was for Ireland’.
Scottish Tory MSP Craig Hoy said: ‘John Swinney talks about presenting a clear case for independence, something that he has singularly failed to do over nearly two decades in government.
‘The SNP have spent millions and wasted countless months in civil servants’ time on their independence obsession.
‘But the real cost of this has been a bruising 18 years for Scotland’s public services, with the NHS on its knees, roads in total disrepair and school standards plummeting.
‘Scotland deserves better than this failing SNP Government.
‘If John Swinney is really serious about making Scotland’s wealth work for Scots, he would cut their tax and end the SNP’s waste and incompetence.’
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: ‘Anyone who has walked down a high street hollowed out on the SNP’s watch, sat in an A&E waiting room for hours on end, or watched their council struggle to fix roads and collect bins wishes that John Swinney would wheesht with the blame game and get on with the day job.
‘Instead of fixing the damage in our public services, the SNP is once again talking up independence as a distraction from its own failures.
‘From the crisis in our NHS to the violence in our schools and the pressure on councils, the SNP has left every institution in Scotland weaker after nearly two decades in power and they are hoping Scotland won’t notice.
‘This is not as good as it gets, in just five months we have the chance to put a stop to SNP decline and vote for a fresh start with Scottish Labour.’
Read more
- Amid swirling controversies, can John Swinney rally the SNP for an independence breakthrough?
- Is John Swinney’s independence dream for Scotland a ‘fantasy’ or a ‘fresh start,’ as financial crises loom on the horizon?
- Is John Swinney out of touch for claiming Scotland’s independence as a ‘fresh start’ or is it just a recycled fantasy?
- Is Scotland set for a seismic shift as Stephen Flynn slams Keir Starmer and calls for a ‘fresh start’ with independence?
- Is John Swinney truly prioritizing independence propaganda over Scotland’s crumbling infrastructure and health crisis?
