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Scottish independence is “within reach”, First Minister John Swinney has said, as a new poll projects the Scottish National Party just one seat short of a majority ahead of this year’s Holyrood election.
A survey conducted by More in Common forecasts the SNP securing 64 seats in May, with Reform UK and Labour competing for second place, and the Conservatives potentially falling to joint fourth alongside the Liberal Democrats. The projection places the SNP on the cusp of a parliamentary majority, a threshold Mr Swinney has previously set as the basis for seeking a fresh independence referendum.
The UK government has continued to reject calls for a new vote, insisting that the issue was settled by the 2014 referendum. However, Mr Swinney has argued that mounting instability at Westminster has reignited the case for independence.
He pointed to what he described as a “stream of chaos and scandal” in London, including recent controversy involving Lord Peter Mandelson, as evidence that the “Westminster status quo is rapidly unravelling”.
“People in Scotland, watching the news unfold night after night, know that Britain is broken beyond repair – it cannot and it will not be fixed – it is locked in a cycle that only knows chaos, lurching from economic mess one week to corruption scandal the next,” the First Minister said.
“Faced with that reality, momentum is once again building behind the knowledge that independence offers the chance to escape a broken Westminster system and a chance to build our own country anew – that momentum means that an SNP majority and that fresh start with independence is now within reach.
“Here in Scotland the SNP has been delivering on the priorities of Scotland from opening our first GP walk-in centre to freezing rail fares, but that fundamental concept is now ever-present in the minds of Scots – Westminster doesn’t work for Scotland.
“The key question in May is now clear – we can either stay stuck to this broken Westminster system, or we can build a future beyond broken, Brexit Britain.
“We can choose a new Scotland through the fresh start of independence.”
The remarks come at the end of a week in which Swinney has faced political pressure at home, after opposition MSPs accused Scotland’s Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, of “corruption”. The allegation relates to her briefing the First Minister on embezzlement charges against former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell weeks before those charges were made public.
Despite the controversy, the SNP leadership has sought to keep the focus on constitutional change, arguing that events at Westminster have reinforced the argument that Scotland’s political future should not be tied to decisions taken in London.