The Scottish National Party (SNP) is “learning the lessons” of its calamitous defeat in July’s UK general election, and will focus more on voters’ immediate priorities such as public services and the economy, its annual conference in Edinburgh has been told.
John Swinney, the party leader and first minister of Scotland, suggested in his conference speech on Sunday that the SNP would widen its offer to the public beyond its traditional mantra of seeking independence from the UK. Mr Swinney’s address came just eight weeks after the SNP was crushed by Labour in the UK general election in July. The SNP lost 39 seats, returning just nine MPs to the UK parliament Westminster.
If the SNP is to make a comeback in advance of the 2026 elections for the Scottish parliament in Holyrood by focusing on public services it will have to do so while also implementing deep spending cuts.
Mr Swinney warned that Scotland is facing its most daunting financial challenge since devolution in 1998. He suggested that some of the devolved government’s prized policies, such as universal child benefit payments, were “at risk” due to the financial cuts that the new Labour UK government is expected to introduce next month. He accused Labour of being “two-faced” for promising UK voters change in the recent election, while, as the SNP sees it, continuing with the austere financial policies of the previous Tory government.
Earlier on Sunday Angus Robertson, the Scottish government’s cabinet secretary for external affairs, apologised to party members for meeting Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UK last month. The meeting sparked anger within the party, whose membership is heavily pro-Palestinian, after the Israeli side tweeted a picture of Mr Roberston posing alongside their diplomat Daniela Grudsky.
Speaking from the podium at the main hall Mr Roberston said he was “profoundly sorry” for the meeting, which had led to calls for his resignation from some pro-Palestinian protesters. He said it did not represent a “normalisation” of the Scottish government’s relations with Israel.
Pro-Palestinian protesters maintained a strong presence outside the venue throughout the weekend for the SNP gathering. Mr Swinney called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in his speech later in the afternoon.
The party leader had repeatedly signalled in the run-up to the event that he wanted the party to present a united front at the conference following its election drubbing. The scale of the defeat has prompted a round of soul-searching within the SNP over its political strategy, including how it might reach its Holy Grail of independence. The UK government has repeatedly rebuffed attempts by the SNP in recent years for a fresh independence referendum.
While Mr Swinney suggested a change in the SNP’s immediate political focus he promised the party faithful that leaving the UK remained the party’s over-riding ambition, and is part of his thinking “morning, noon and night”.
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