Swinney says General Election timing ‘disrespectful’ to Scottish voters

John Swinney has said the General Election will be a challenge given the “tough time” the SNP have had recently, but his party is coming together.

The First Minister told Kay Burley on Sky News Breakfast: “I think it will be a challenging election for us Kay, we’ve obviously had a tough time as a party but I’ve come into the party leadership, I’ve been in for two and a half weeks and the party has come together already, it’s very united.

“We’ve got our candidates in place and we’ve got a strong message that Westminster has done a lot of damage to Scotland through austerity, Brexit and the cost-of-living crisis and the way to address that is for Scotland to take these decisions for ourselves by being an independent country.”

When it was put to him that a recent opinion poll put Labour 10 points ahead of the SNP in Scotland, he said: “Well we’ve got work to do and I’ve got to lead the campaign from the front.

“I’m fresh into the party leadership, I’ve brought my party together already in two and a half weeks, we’re a united force.”

Swinney also said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to hold the election during the Scottish school holidays shows a “lack of respect” for Scotland.

He told BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I don’t really think the arrangements in Scotland for the school holidays have really been anywhere near the calculations made by the Prime Minister.”

Asked whether he would expect them to be, he said: “I think it would be respectful if that was the case but it’s pretty typical of the lack of respect shown to Scotland that we’re an afterthought from the Westminster establishment and particularly the Conservative establishment.

“What it means is that people who are going to be on holiday at the start of the school holidays in late June, early July have got to arrange a postal vote so that they can exercise their (right to) vote and be participants in our democracy, so that’s got to be put in place pretty quickly by folk.”

Sunak denied that the real reason for calling a summer election is that inflation is expected to rise again and there is likely to be a spike in small boat arrivals over the summer.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, the Prime Minister said: “No, that’s not the real reason.

“And when it comes to the economy, of course I know there’s more work to do. I know that people are only just starting to feel the benefits of the changes that we’ve brought.

“And for some people when they look at their bank balance at the end of every month it will still be difficult, but we have undeniably made progress and stability has returned.”

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the party will “take the fight to the SNP”.

He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “The Scottish Conservatives will take the fight to the SNP, beat the nationalists in crucial seats up and down Scotland and get the focus back on what people have been telling me on the doorsteps for months that they want their governments to be focused on.

“It’s about improving our education system, investing in the NHS, it’s about growing our economy, creating good jobs, but they know that in crucial seats it’s going to be a very close fight between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP.

“If they back the Scottish Conservatives, their priorities will be at the forefront, if they back the nationalists it will be about independence.

“Every party has been urging the Prime Minister to call the election, he has now done that, we are going to the country on July 4 and in the next six weeks, I will be out with my candidates up and down the country who are taking the fight to the SNP in these key seats because they know the local priorities in their constituencies.

“They know that voters are fed up with John Swinney and the SNP’s obsession with independence.”

Meanwhile, Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden told BBC Good Morning Scotland: “We are in good shape in Scotland – we assume nothing, but the really critical thing is that power of the vote in Scotland to send much more than a message, to actually be part of sending a Labour government to Westminster.”

Asked whether the party would do any deals if there is a hung parliament, McFadden said: “We are not doing any deals, the aim is for a majority, we know that that’s ambitious but we want to bring stability to the country and I believe that voters in Scotland have got a critical role to play in this.”

Lorna Slater, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said the party will stand at least 31 candidates, more than ever before in Scotland.

She told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “Having Scottish Greens in the room at every hustings, at every media event, means that the climate and nature emergencies get a look-in because without us there they tend to get forgotten altogether.”

Asked whether there is a concern that Scottish Greens standing in a greater number of seats might split the independence vote, she said that is “kind of neither here nor there”.

Slater said: “The SNP’s fortunes are a matter for the SNP. The independence movement – and it should be and is – larger than any one political party, so support for independence has been around about half the country for a while now and we aren’t going to get independence just from people elected to Westminster, it actually needs to be a national movement, we need to get support for independence up higher.”

Asked whether any deals could be done in areas where it is very tight between the SNP and the Scottish Conservatives, for example, and whether the Scottish Greens might step out of the way, she said: “There has been no discussions of deals, there are no deals of that kind, we’ve already chosen our candidates.”

Asked whether all the party’s candidates for Scottish seats were in place, he said: “We might have a few to select but if there’s anything like that to do we’ll do it in the next few days”.

The Liberal Democrats would “absolutely not” make pacts with other parties in the General Election, the party’s deputy leader has said, while swerving questions about whether it would be open to forming a government with Labour afterwards.

Daisy Cooper told LBC radio: “There have never been any pacts and there won’t be any pacts because we don’t need any pacts.”

On whether the Lib Dems would hold government-forming talks with Labour if it comes short of a majority, she said: “I’m not going to think about anything that happens after 10pm on polling day.

“We are completely focused on winning as many votes as possible and beating Conservative MPs right now.”

London’s FTSE 100 Index has largely held steady after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the General Election for July 4.

The blue chip share index edged 13.5 points lower, down 0.2%, at 8356.9, soon after opening on Thursday.

The pound was also largely unmoved, gaining just 0.1% at 1.273 US dollars and was also 0.1% higher at 1.176 euros.

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