Russell Findlay has warned voters not to hand the SNP a majority in May’s election because John Swinney is deadly serious about his plans to break up the UK.
In a speech in Glasgow this morning, the Scottish Conservative leader said Swinney’s ‘secret plan’ for independence would be his sole focus in the next parliament if he achieved his target.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “John Swinney is increasingly confident of winning an outright majority and he is 100-per-cent clear about what that means.
“He says he has a ‘secret plan’ to achieve a referendum. Nothing else will matter to him and his party.
“If there’s one thing I want you to take from this morning, it is this: we must not sleepwalk back in time to 2011.
“We must not allow the SNP to win a majority of seats on May the 7th.
“Because if they do, they will start agitating to break up Britain on May the 8th.
“Be in no doubt. The threat is real.”
Full text of speech (check against delivery):
Good morning and thank you for being here.
You’ll never guess what happened in this room.
This is where Anas Sarwar chucked Keir Starmer.
On this exact spot.
Anas Sarwar told the nation that the prime minister should get out of Downing Street.
That Keir Starmer is doing a truly terrible job.
Tell us something we don’t know.
Anyway, fast forward six weeks and Keir Starmer is still doing a terrible job.
While Anas Sarwar looks as weak as ever …
He picks a fight with Keir Starmer and comes off second best.
And he can’t lay a glove on John Swinney.
Unlike the loveless Labour duo, I look forward to welcoming our UK leader to Scotland.
And Kemi Badenoch tells me that she can’t wait to join us on the campaign trail.
Kemi knows what’s at stake.
We all do.
Can you imagine another five years of the SNP?
More damage to Scotland?
More division?
But this is not set in stone.
Scotland is 45 days away from the election.
At the end of this week, parliament will shut down.
MSP offices will be emptied.
Passes will be deactivated.
But before that happens, I get one more crack at John Swinney.
The final First Minister’s Questions is on Wednesday.
It will be my 59th outing.
I got the measure of John Swinney after my very first FMQs.
This week we’ll see the usual Swinney performance.
Evasion and bluster.
Dishonesty and deflection.
And of course some fake anger and unconvincing empathy.
I’ve seen more emotion in a brick.
I’m really looking forward to escaping from the concrete bunker of Holyrood.
I’m raring to get out of there, into the real world … blinking into the sunlight.
To talk with voters across our great country.
To look real people in the eye and to make our case.
Yes, we all see the polls.
Yes, they’re not pretty.
But I have confidence going into this election and so should you.
And here’s why:
For years, we have been the only party strong enough to stand up to the SNP.
We opposed their painful tax rises on hard-working Scots which they use to lavish on state benefits.
We stood up for women’s rights by stopping Nicola Sturgeon’s absurd gender self-ID law.
We supported free speech by opposing Humza Yousaf’s sinister hate crime law.
We pursued them relentlessly and forensically over their CalMac ferry corruption.
We backed fishermen and blocked the SNP’s plan to close their fishing grounds with highly protected marine areas.
We forced the SNP to ditch their reckless attempt to end trial by jury.
We also made them abandon their daft ban on wood-burning stoves.
We forced them to end drug-soaked mail getting into prisons.
We scored a victory for the holiday industry by forcing the SNP to amend its flawed visitor levy.
We asked the tough questions when the Lord Advocate tipped off John Swinney about the criminal case against Nicola Sturgeon’s husband.
We stood up for taxpayers when Michael Matheson claimed £11,000 from taxpayers for iPad roaming.
And we saw off Mr Matheson … just as we got rid of Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon.
We have a solid record at Holyrood.
A record that we can be proud of.
A record that we should shout about.
I’d like to thank all of our fantastic MSPs for their graft and their grit.
It’s not just our record and our people that should instil confidence.
We can be confident because we go into this election knowing we’re on the right side of public opinion on all the big issues.
Whether it is energy, and our support for oil and gas and new nuclear generation in Scotland…
Or criminal justice, and our demand for honest sentencing…
Or education, and our plan to give headteachers the power to exclude violent pupils …
Most people out there agree with our common-sense plans.
Then there’s the number one issue of the people of Scotland.
The issue that will be at the heart of our campaign.
And that’s the cost-of-living crisis.
People work hard but struggle to pay the bills.
The weekly shop gets more expensive.
There’s too much month at the end of the money.
The BBC recently published a major poll.
It showed the cost of living was a top priority for 2 out of 3 Scots.
And one in three said the economy was a priority.
We are committed to addressing both.
We are committed to putting more money in people’s pockets.
We would do this by cutting taxes.
We would back business to grow our flatlining economy.
That’s the Conservative way.
It’s what we believe in.
And it’s what people want.
Look at what we’ve all had to put up with under the SNP.
Look at the state of the public finances.
Scotland has 25 per cent more to spend on public services per head than the rest of the UK.
So, you might expect that we would have lower taxes.
But no – the SNP have made Scotland the highest-taxed part of the UK.
With all that extra money, you might think Scotland would have amazing public services?
But no.
Scotland’s public services are on life support.
Funding is either flat or being cut.
All the credible independent financial experts are warning of a red light flashing on the dashboard.
People like the Institute of Fiscal Studies and the Fraser of Allander Institute all say it.
The SNP government is running out of cash.
So where is all the money – your money – going?
Well, there’s one area of public spending that is booming.
Where money is no object to the SNP.
And that’s the welfare system.
Benefits already cost 7 billion pounds a year.
One pound of every seven pounds spent by ministers is on benefits.
That’s high. Eye-wateringly high.
But it is going to get even higher.
The benefits bill is on course to 10 billion in coming years.
Not by accident.
It’s the deliberate consequence of the SNP’s decisions.
They appear to think sky-high benefits are virtuous and progressive.
They have built a light-touch system that takes claims at face value.
It is a charter for cheats.
It betrays taxpayers.
And it betrays those in genuine need.
Did you know that the SNP’s out-of-control benefits spending is backed by all other parties?
Labour, the Lib Dems, and Reform ...
It’s so reckless and so wrong.
You’ve heard me challenge John Swinney about his bloated benefits bill at FMQs.
You’ve seen him go red in the face.
You’ve heard him lose the plot.
He rants and raves because I dare ask questions on behalf of hard-grafting Scottish taxpayers.
But for all his finger-jabbing fury, he’s not once come up with an honest answer.
I can tell you what the act is all about.
He knows – just as we know – that he’s on the wrong side of public opinion.
All the other parties know it too.
But they are choosing (cynically and dishonestly choosing) to be dishonest with the paying public.
Talking of being dishonest with the public, did you see Reform’s big manifesto launch?
Within hours, the Institute for Fiscal Studies described Lord Offord’s tax cuts as a “mirage” which are “not credible”.
Thank goodness. Reform are finally being put under the spotlight.
Let me return to that BBC survey.
It showed that more than two out of three Scots believe benefits spending should be the same or lower than the rest of the UK.
Only around a quarter agree with John Swinney’s big-spending approach.
He rants and raves at me because he can’t face the facts.
So here’s another fact for John Swinney:
People don’t agree with his tax policy either.
Eight out of 10 say that income tax should be about the same or lower than in the rest of the UK.
Just 15 per cent believe tax should be higher … although I can’t say I’ve met many of them.
John Swinney’s sky-high taxes are wrong.
We know it and the public knows it.
We would cut income tax.
We would put money back in people’s pockets.
That’s how you alleviate biting living costs.
Our approach would build business confidence after two decades of SNP taxes and red tape.
Our approach would break the SNP doom loop of high tax and low growth.
Just imagine what Scotland could achieve.
A vibrant economy with business confidence creating well-paid jobs.
Our positive economic approach would create wealth, increase the tax take.
And that in turn is how you’re able to fund public services.
And here’s another thing.
We would fund tax cuts by tackling the SNP’s out-of-control benefit spending.
We would create a fair system by cracking down on cheats.
We would ensure payments reach the needy, not the greedy.
We do not accept the SNP way – that benefits should be a lifestyle choice.
Like Sally Donald, John Swinney’s former star candidate who pocketed almost 20 grand she was not entitled to.
We would cut taxes and reduce benefits because it’s the right thing to do.
It is the common-sense thing to do.
Give taxpayers a break.
And make benefits fair.
That’s my message today.
It will be my message tomorrow, the day after and on every single day of the election campaign.
I’ve got another hard fact for John Swinney.
The BBC survey I mentioned earlier brought him bad news on another issue.
The one issue that he cares about.
Just one in eight voters put independence in their top three priorities.
It is another issue where we – the Scottish Conservatives – are on the right side of public opinion.
And where John Swinney is on the wrong side.
Not that hard facts will ever persuade an obsessive.
John Swinney will always put the SNP’s interests over the interests of the people of Scotland.
I know, you know, we all know what we’ll get if John Swinney wins a majority on the 7th of May.
Let me remind you what he said just a few days ago.
I quote: “Poll after poll puts the SNP within touching distance of securing a majority – repeating the success of 2011 that paved the way for the 2014 independence referendum.”
John Swinney is increasingly confident of winning an outright majority and he is 100 per cent clear about what that means.
He says it will give him the green light for a second referendum.
He will spend day and night ramping up pressure on a weak and unpopular prime minister, Keir Starmer.
He says he has a ‘secret plan’ to achieve a referendum.
Nothing else will matter to him and his party.
If there’s one thing I want you to take from this morning, it is this:
We must not sleepwalk back in time to 2011.
We must not allow the SNP to win a majority of seats on May the 7th.
Because if they do they will start agitating to break up Britain on May the 8th.
Be in no doubt.
The threat is real.
We know where we stand on this.
The clue’s in the name.
The Scottish Conservative and Unionist party.
We believe in the United Kingdom.
We reject, with the utmost conviction, the SNP’s relentless drive to rip Scotland out of the UK.
We’re the only party going into this election who are prepared to say so, and say so proudly.
We are the only party strong enough and determined enough to call out the SNP and stop their referendum.
Labour and the Lib Dems are weak and silent on the issue.
Unionist in name only.
And then there’s Reform.
Draping themselves in the Union Flag but they cannot be trusted on the union.
I’ll go further than that – they are not even a Unionist party.
Nigel Farage’s man in Scotland is quite open about this.
Lord Offord says he wants to work with what he calls ‘rational nationalists’.
There’s an oxymoron.
He says he’s relaxed about another referendum in a few years’ time.
He’s even given the SNP a blueprint about how to win it.
Work with Reform, he says, and the SNP will be in the strongest possible position to break up Britain.
They are damned by their own words.
And look at their candidates.
In 2024, they stood pro-independence candidates in the general election.
Last week, Lord Offord proudly unveiled pro-independence candidates.
Nationalists stand for Reform because they know that Reform will put the union on the line with another referendum.
Well, I am opposed to a referendum.
You are too.
And I’m going to spend this campaign telling the people of Scotland how they can stop it.
There is a way.
And that is to vote Scottish Conservative on the party list ballot on May the 7th.
Wherever you live in Scotland, you should vote Scottish Conservative on the peach ballot paper.
That’s your secret weapon to stop an SNP majority and end John Swinney’s threat to hold an independence referendum.
It worked in 2016.
It worked in 2021.
And it can work again.
Friends, we must go into this campaign with confidence.
We have a series of common-sense policies that are right for Scotland – and we are on the right side of public opinion.
We have a better way for our country.
A lower-tax Scotland, where hard work pays.
Where the economy grows, creating better jobs and generating more funds for the NHS and other public services.
A better way than five more years of SNP decline, secrecy, scandal, cover-up and incompetence.
A better way than dragging Scotland back to the distraction and division of an independence referendum.
We’ve opposed SNP nonsense consistently and robustly since the last election.
We are not going to stop now.
There is too much at stake.
For the next six weeks I am going to be travelling around Scotland.
I hope to see you out on the campaign trail, knocking on doors, talking to voters and sharing our message.
Together we will give everything we’ve got to stop an SNP majority.
To stop John Swinney’s referendum.
And to give Scotland the chance of a better future.