John Swinney
John Ramsay Swinney is a Scottish politician who has served as First Minister of Scotland since 2024. Swinney has served as Leader of the Scottish National Party twice; between 2000 and 2004, and since 2024. He has held various roles within the Scottish Cabinet from 2007 to 2023 under First Ministers Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. Swinney was Member of the Scottish Parliament for North Tayside from 1999 to 2011 and, following boundary changes, has been MSP for Perthshire North since 2011. He was Member of Parliament for Tayside North from 1997 to 2001.
Born in Edinburgh, Swinney graduated with a MA in politics at the University of Edinburgh. He joined the SNP at 15 years of age, and quickly rose to prominence by serving as the National Secretary from 1986 to 1992 and as Depute Leader from 1998 to 2000. He served in the House of Commons as MP for Tayside North from 1997 to 2001. He was elected to the inaugural Scottish Parliament at the 1999 Scottish Parliament election. After Salmond resigned the party leadership in 2000, Swinney was elected at the 2000 leadership election. He became Leader of the Opposition in the Scottish Parliament. The SNP lost one MP at the 2001 general election and eight MSPs at the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, despite the Officegate scandal unseating the previous Scottish Labour first minister, Henry McLeish. However, the only parties to gain seats in that election were the Scottish Greens and the Scottish Socialist Party which, like the SNP, have supported independence. After an unsuccessful challenge to his leadership in 2003, and the party's unfavourable results at the 2004 European Parliament election, Swinney resigned. Salmond returned to the role at the subsequent 2004 leadership election.
From 2004 to 2007, Swinney was a backbencher. At the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP won the highest number of seats, and Salmond was subsequently appointed first minister. Swinney served under Salmond as Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth from 2007 to 2014. After Sturgeon succeeded Salmond, she appointed Swinney as Deputy First Minister in 2014. He also served as Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy, until that role was divided into two posts in the second Sturgeon government as a result of the expansion of the Scottish Parliament's financial powers; he was then appointed Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills in 2016, and then as Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery in 2021. On 25 May 2022, Swinney became the longest serving Deputy First Minister, surpassing the previous record which was held by Sturgeon. Swinney served as Acting Finance and Economy Secretary in addition to his position of Covid Recovery Secretary from July 2022 to March 2023. In March 2023, he resigned from his senior positions in response to Sturgeon's resignation as first minister.
Swinney spent the duration of Humza Yousaf's premiership on the backbenches and served as a member of the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee. Following Yousaf's resignation in April 2024, Swinney ran to succeed him at the 2024 SNP leadership election and was elected unopposed. His early premiership saw the SNP lose 39 seats at the 2024 United Kingdom general election, reducing the SNP to the second-largest party in Scotland and the fourth-largest party in the Westminster Parliament.
Early life
John Ramsay Swinney was born on 13 April 1964 in the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, the son of Kenneth Swinney, a garage manager, and Agnes Weir Swinney. His uncle Tom Hunter was awarded the Victoria Cross whilst serving with the Royal Marines during the Second World War. His maternal grandparents, Ramsey and Mary Hunter, were from England, having moved to Edinburgh in the 1920s.Swinney was educated at Forrester High School, before attending the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated with a Master of Arts Honours degree in politics in 1986. He was a research officer for the Scottish Coal Project from 1987 to 1988, a senior management consultant with Development Options from 1988 to 1992, and a strategic planning principal with Scottish Amicable Life Assurance from 1992 to 1997.
Early political career
Early involvement
Swinney joined the Scottish National Party in 1979 at the age of 15, citing his anger at the way in which Scotland had been portrayed by television commentators at the Commonwealth Games. He quickly became a prominent figure in the party's youth wing, the Young Scottish Nationalist, now known as the Young Scots for Independence . He served as the SNP's Assistant National Secretary, before becoming the National Secretary in 1986, at the age of 22.House of Commons
At the 1997 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament for the Tayside North constituency, and in 1999 he was elected to represent the same area at the Scottish Parliament. He stood down as a Westminster MP at the 2001 general election in order to avoid splitting his time, in line with all of his colleagues who found themselves in a similar dual mandate position.Election to Holyrood
In 1999 Swinney was elected to the 1st Scottish Parliament, representing the North Tayside constituency. In Salmond's opposition cabinet, he served as the Spokesman on Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. He also served on the Parliament's Finance Committee and was the Convener of the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee.Leader of the SNP in opposition (2000–2004)
2000 Leadership bid
In 2000 Alex Salmond resigned as leader of the SNP, which triggered a leadership contest. Swinney ran in the election against Alex Neil. The leadership contest was dominated by internal fights in the party between Gradualists, who advocated Scottish devolution as step towards independence, and Fundamentalists, who were suspicious of devolution and supported a more radical approach. Swinney represented the gradualist wing and Neil represented the fundamentalists wing. Whilst both candidates supported the position of the SNP on the centre-left, Neil was seen as the more left-wing of the two, and individuals associated with the Neil campaign argued that a Swinney leadership would drag the SNP to the right.Swinney won an overwhelming majority of votes by party delegates, securing 67.1% of votes. He was appointed leader at the party's conference on 16 September 2000. Roseanna Cunningham, who endorsed Swinney in the leadership race, was elected Depute Leader.
Tenure
Internal party divisions
Swinney's leadership quickly came under challenge. His subdued style of debating technique was often contrasted with that of his more charismatic predecessor. In 2002 Dorothy-Grace Elder, the SNP MSP for the Glasgow region, resigned her party membership after coming dissatisfied with the leadership of the SNP. She sat as an independent MSP, but Swinney called for her resignation, describing her actions as a "flout the democratic will of the people of Glasgow". Margo MacDonald, a fundamentalist within the SNP, voiced her lack of confidence in Swinney's leadership. MacDonald was placed fifth in the Lothians region for the 2003 Parliament election in the SNP's candidate selection, effectively ending her chances of being re-elected as an SNP MSP. In protest, she ran instead as an independent candidate and was later expelled from the party.In 2003 a former parliamentary candidate and a party activist in the Shetland Islands Brian Nugent formed his own pro-independence party, the Scottish Party, which eventually relaunched itself as the Free Scotland Party, in response to what he perceived to be an overly pro-EU stance by the SNP.
2001 UK and 2003 Scottish elections
Swinney led the SNP through a poor election result at the 2001 UK General election. The party failed to take any of their target seats and saw the loss of one of their MPs, reducing their representation at Westminster from six to five. In the Perth constituency, the Scottish Conservatives were 50 votes behind the SNP. Although the SNP's vote share remained the second-largest party, behind Labour, their vote share fell by 2%. Swinney's predecessor, Salmond, stated "consolidating as the second party in Scotland is no mean achievement" and highlighted it put the SNP in a good position for the upcoming Scottish Parliament election in 2003. Following the results of the election, Swinney admitted there were "lessons to learn" and ensured the SNP would be the "principal opposition party in Scottish politics".In the 2003 election, the SNP performed poorly in yet another election, with the party's vote share dropping by 4.9%. They lost eight of their seats they had gained in the previous election under the leadership of Salmond. Despite a poor result, this was also mirrored by the Scottish Labour Party, who lost six MSPs and their vote share dropped by 4.2%. The SNP remained the second-largest party at Holyrood. The decline in support for the SNP was viewed by some as a rejection of the case for Scottish independence, however, the only parties which increased their representation in that election were the Scottish Socialist Party and the Scottish Green Party, both of which also support independence.
2003 leadership challenge
Following the results of the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, Bill Wilson, a party activist, became convinced that a change of direction was needed by the SNP leadership. After discussing this with various SNP members, he was persuaded to contest the leadership himself and launched a challenge against Swinney. Wilson ran a campaign attacking Swinney's proposals for party reform, which he claimed would centralise power and impoverish local branches. Wilson also challenged Swinney to a series of debates, although Swinney refused to take part.The election was yet another fight between the party's fundamentalists and gradualists, with Wilson attacking Swinney's proposal for a referendum on independence before pursuing negotiations with the British government. Wilson argued that as soon as the SNP can form a government it should pursue negotiations to end the union.
The election was held at the party's 69th annual conference, and saw Swinney winning a massive victory over Wilson. Moves in support of Wilson's proposition of pursuing independence negotiations without a referendum were thrown out at the party conference, and Swinney won significant policy battles over imposing a monthly levy on party MPs, MSPs, and MEPs. In a surprise result, the new central membership system was also approved. The membership changes had been a key issue of attack from Wilson. Soon afterwards, the party's National Executive Committee decided to suspend and then expel Campbell Martin. He had backed Wilson's leadership challenge and had continued to be overtly critical of Swinney's leadership, resulting in disciplinary action. This was the last SNP election to use the delegate voting method. Future elections would be based on a one-person-one-vote postal vote system.