Party’s return to minority government after a year of upheaval will test his renowned negotiating skills

• John Swinney declares ‘new chapter’ as he becomes SNP leader

Few people understand the internal dynamics and historic loyalties of the Scottish National party better than John Swinney, who joined the party at 15 and quickly rose to become national secretary by his early 20s.

His unfussy election as leader says much about the esteem in which he is held by colleagues across factions and ages – while at 60 Swinney is a generation older than his predecessor, Humza Yousaf, his confirmation was instantly welcomed by Amy Callaghan, one of the party’s youngest MPs, as well as by established Holyrood cabinet secretaries.

Swinney says party has been having a ‘tough, rough time’ as he laments impact of recent infighting and chaos

John Swinney declared “a new chapter in our party’s history” as he became leader of the Scottish National party on Monday, but said recent infighting and chaos had left the public “worried about where we are as a party”.

Speaking to senior SNP politicians and activists at an event at the University of Glasgow, Swinney said his decision to stand for the role of leader – after Humza Yousaf announced his intention to step down a week ago – was “not born out of long-held ambition but rather a profound sense of duty to my party and my country”.

Depute leader insists Graeme McCormick’s last-minute withdrawal proof party is united

• UK politics live – latest updates

The Scottish National party’s depute leader has denied that a party activist was “leaned on” to pull out of the leadership race against John Swinney.

The party’s depute leader, Keith Brown, said Graeme McCormick’s last-minute decision on Sunday night not to stand against Swinney was proof the party was united and focused on delivering independence.

Swinney may be only candidate after withdrawal of Graeme McCormick

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Maria Caulfied was unable to explain how Sunak was including Scottish and Welsh voters in calculating there would be a hung parliament at the next election.

Asked repeatedly how many seats Labour would have in Scotland under the projection Sunak was referring too, Caulfield eventually said “I think because these were English local elections, it doesn’t touch on the Scottish results.”

What we can see from these results and it was consistent … is that people are not switching to Labour. Labour did not get the results in places like Teeside or Harlow that they were expecting, even though they threw the kitchen sink at some of those. Voters are tending at the moment to stay at home. They don’t want a Labour government.

If you look at Blackpool South, for example, the vast majority of our voters that voted for us in 2019 stayed at home, they didn’t switch to Labour. They didn’t switch to Reform. They stayed at home and that shows that they haven’t really been tempted by other parties.

Keir Starmer propped up in Downing Street by the SNP, Liberal Democrats and the Greens would be a disaster for Britain. The country doesn’t need more political horse trading, but action. We are the only party that has a plan to deliver on the priorities of the people.

Graeme McCormick said he had the support to run but is backing former Scottish deputy first minister, who is sole official candidate

A Scottish National party activist has pulled out of the race to become its new leader and has endorsed John Swinney as Scotland’s next first minister.

Graeme McCormick , who stood to become SNP president in 2023, earlier claimed he could gather the 100 signatures needed from 20 different party branches to mount a challenge for the leadership.

Graeme McCormick claims he will gather requisite number of signatures to force contest instead of unopposed coronation

John Swinney could face a leadership contest before he becomes Scottish National party leader after an activist said he expected to win enough nominations to stand.

Graeme McCormick, a well-known party activist who stood to become SNP president in 2023, claimed he would gather the 100 signatures needed from 20 different party branches to mount a challenge for the leadership.

Polls saying the nationalist cause is no priority among voters are misleading. The aspiration to once again be a sovereign European state has only been strengthened by devolution

Like an arthritic old tree in autumn, the Scottish National party is shedding its voters. It does this almost seasonally, a shrivel followed years later by another spring. And yet the SNP’s soul and cause, independence, isn’t shedding its supporters. Backing for that stays roughly where it’s been for a decade, at just under half (occasionally just over half) the poll samples. How does that make sense?

Scotland can seem an imperturbable land. Every year, the hills change colour from russet to green, as the geese end their loud argument, rise and head north. And yet vast things have happened suddenly here. Ten thousand years ago, the climate abruptly shot up by 9C in little over a century. Glaciers melted, trees appeared; deer, human beings, wolves and bears ventured back to a cold but habitable Caledonia. Two thousand years later, the coast of Norway collapsed into the sea (the “Storegga slide”), sending a mountainous tsunami roaring across to scour eastern Scotland and its terrified hunter-gatherers. Scottish politics in our time can seem dreary, pettily fractious. But when they do change, it’s precipitate. The old landscape is scoured clean of its previous ecology.

John Swinney faces series of immediate challenges, including rebuilding cross-party trust at Holyrood

John Swinney and senior SNP deal-makers have scored an initial success in avoiding another bruising leadership contest, which would have been potentially disastrous for the party in a general election year.

But that relief will be short-lived, as the new leader faces a series of immediate practical challenges, chief among them is convincing voters that the party is genuinely focused on their concerns as well as rebuilding cross-party trust at Holyrood in minority government.

David Sinclair says the Scottish first minister’s lack of political nous resulted in a litany of mistakes. Plus a letter from Ed Pybus

Rory Scothorne suggests that Westminster had a hand in Humza Yousaf’s demise ( Humza Yousaf’s clumsiness meant he had to jump – but Westminster also gave him a push, 29 April ). In fact, the majority of the electorate in Scotland do not want a second independence referendum, the gender recognition reform bill contravened the UK-wide Equality Act, and the deposit return scheme was ill thought through. Yousaf was the architect of his own demise via a pattern of lack of judgment.

Announcing a council tax freeze without consulting his partners in government and the local authorities that would have to fund the freeze, chasing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , the Turkish president, for a photo opportunity, and the decision to dump the Greens did it. A politician lacking political nous will always have his coat on a shoogly peg.
David Sinclair
Edinburgh