Month: June 2024

Mr Swinney told activists and candidates at a rally in Glasgow that Westminster decision-making had meant “austerity, Brexit and a cost of living crisis being imposed on Scotland”.

Scotland’s first minister stressed his belief in independence as a way to ensure decisions about Scotland are made in Scotland.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said John Swinney’s “relaunch of a shambolic campaign” proved he was more interested in his party than the people.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross accused Mr Swinney of “pandering to his Nationalist base and pitting Scot against Scot in a bid to break up the UK”.

Meanwhile, Scottish Lib Dems leader Alex Cole-Hamilton also criticised the SNP’s continued push for a second independence referendum – insisting voters simply “don’t care”.

However, Mr Swinney has called on the public to back his party’s indy stance in the 4 July general election and use the vote as a direct way to remove the Conservatives from government.

He said: “A combination of Westminster cuts and Brexit has reduced the money available for the NHS, other public services and housing.

“Brexit alone has wiped billions from the Scottish economy compared with EU membership. And it’s pushed up food and other household costs.

“Given the UK is moving so badly in the wrong direction I would be failing in my duty if I did not set out what I believe is a better future for Scotland.”

Following his election as first minister last month, Mr Swinney called for more respect to be shown in Scottish politics.

Looking ahead to the UK-wide general election, he said he believes in “the politics of persuasion or, if that’s not possible, respectful disagreement”.

He told those at the rally that “in our wonderful, diverse, inspiring country” everyone should have a chance to get on in life.

“It’s why I believe so strongly in eradicating child poverty,” the first minister will say.

“At this election it is those principles that will guide my approach. So I am asking people to vote SNP to remove the Tories from government.

“I’m asking people to vote SNP to put Scotland’s interests first. I’m asking people to vote for a future made in Scotland, for Scotland.”

Mr Swinney also highlighted what the he said the SNP had achieved in government, including:

Analysis by Phil Sim, BBC Scotland political correspondent

John Swinney’s calculation is that a Labour win is already priced in for many in this election.

At his launch event, he predicted that “the Tories are on course for a huge defeat, a wipeout”.

The pitch is that the Tories are toast anyway, and Labour will have a big majority – so Scots don’t actually need to vote for Labour to achieve that. Indeed, he says they should vote for the SNP to keep Labour honest – to hold their feet to the fire.

He’s painting them as already being complacent – “they think Scotland is in the bag”.

The question is whether this message – that people can have a Labour government without actually voting Labour – will cut through with voters, compared to the rather more straightforward “change” narrative Sir Keir Starmer is selling.

Speaking on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show, Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole- Hamilton said his party was not talking about independence during this campaign “because literally no-one on the doorsteps is talking about it – they don’t care”.

He added: “We don’t believe there should be a second referendum – it’s not salient to people right now.

“People want to talk about getting access to a GP at the first time of asking, or NHS dentists in their locality.

“They want to talk about taking the sewage out of our rivers and lifting up Scottish education to where it used to be.”

Speaking on the campaign trail in Renfrew, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the SNP had spent the entire campaign so far attacking Labour when the real opportunity was to “get rid of this rotten Tory government”.

He said: “That’s what we’re focused on – getting rid of Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman and the whole, rotten lot of them.

“People across Scotland realise after 14 years of corruption, chaos, lies and sleaze from the Conservative party that this is Scotland’s opportunity to get rid of them. And the only way we do that is if we elect a UK Labour government.”

Mr Sarwar said he was confident previous SNP supporters would switch to Labour on 4 July.

“I don’t care how you voted in the past. I don’t care how you voted in the referendum. I don’t care how you would possibly vote in future referendums.

“What I care about just now is getting rid of this rotten Tory government, so let’s go on this part of the journey together and change our country.”

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said Mr Swinney had made “a desperate attempt” to relaunch the SNP’s election campaign “in the wake of his shameful mishandling of the Michael Matheson scandal”.

Mr Matheson – a former health secretary – was last week handed a record ban from parliament for breaching Holyrood’s expenses policy.

And police are now assessing a new complaint over the SNP MSP’s £11,000 iPad data roaming bill.

Douglas Ross said: “Predictably, he (Mr Swinney) used it to double down on the SNP’s independence obsession, instead of focusing on the people’s real priorities – fixing our ailing public services and growing the economy.

“As he showed in the Matheson scandal, John Swinney will always put party before country.”

Mr Ross added: “Voters who have had enough of SNP incompetence and their endless sowing of division have the chance to punish them on July 4.

“In key seats across the country, only the Scottish Conservatives can beat the SNP and move the focus on to the issues that really matter.”

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to win a third consecutive term in office, exit polls suggest.

Analysts warn the polls, released by various news agencies, have often been wrong in the past and are not impartial.

However, they have placed Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the frontrunner in the general election.

The BJP, the main opposition Congress party and regional rivals battled it out in a fierce campaign over seven phases of polling.

Results will be announced on 4 June.

A party or coalition needs 272 seats in parliament to form a government.

The BJP led-coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), will cross this target – according to exit polls, which forecast it being close to taking about two-thirds of the seats.

In his first comments after voting ended, Mr Modi claimed victory without referring to the exit polls.

“I can say with confidence that the people of India have voted in record numbers to re-elect the NDA government,” he wrote on X, without providing evidence of his claim.

Prime Minister Modi came into this election with resounding popularity, but his main rival – the leader of the Indian National Congress, Rahul Gandhi – and a coalition of opposition parties gathered significant momentum through the course of the lengthy election campaign.

Now an aggregate of six exit polls forecasts big wins for the BJP-led NDA, but such surveys are not always reliable.

Though the individual numbers vary, they predict that the NDA will get between 355 and 380 seats.

The INDIA bloc is expected to get between 125 and 165 seats, according to the Reuters news agency.

On its own, the BJP may win about 327 seats, not quite meeting its 370-seat target.

India is the world’s most populous country, with 1.4 billion people, and holding a nationwide election is nothing short of a Herculean task.

Some 969 million citizens were eligible to cast their ballot, which is equal to the populations of the US, Russia, Japan, Britain, Brazil, France and Belgium.

Polling for the election, which concluded just hours ago, began on 19 April.

The season was marked by fiery speeches by politicians (some of them controversial), numerous rallies, diatribes, jibes and propaganda as political parties looked to outsmart their opponents – on the ground and even online.

And there wasn’t a dearth of headline-making incidents. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest in a liquor policy case days before polling began drew sharp criticism from opposition leaders and even sections of the media.

Opposition leaders accused the BJP government of trying to silence rivals and deny them a level playing field – which the BJP denies.

A court granted Mr Kejriwal bail on 10 May to campaign for the elections. However, he has to return to jail on 2 June.

The election was also overshadowed by reports of politicians and party workers tampering with voting machines, Muslims being denied their right to vote in some areas and parties flouting the Model Code of Conduct – guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure free and fair elections.

Opposition leaders also accused the commission of not acting on their complaints against the BJP – an allegation the ECI has denied.

The inauguration of the Ram temple, which was one of the BJP’s biggest poll promises this election, and the government’s welfare schemes are expected to benefit the ruling party.

But the high unemployment rate and price rises, especially of food and fuel, were also at the top of many voters’ minds.

The election also came amid allegations from the opposition, activists and global rights organisations that Indian democracy is under threat. It is an issue that may have influenced the way people cast their votes.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has warned China not to cross a red line in the South China Sea, where a standoff between the countries continues to escalate.

If any Filipino died as a result of China’s wilful actions, he said, the Philippines would consider it as close to “an act of war” and respond accordingly.

Mr Marcos was speaking on Friday at a security forum in Singapore attended by defence chiefs from around the world, including the US and China.

A Chinese military spokesman accused the Philippines of “deflecting the blame on China” and “smearing and attacking”.

In recent months the longstanding dispute between China and the Philippines over territory in the South China Sea has sharpened into aggressive clashes.

Manila has complained vociferously about Chinese patrol ships firing water cannon at Philippine boats and supply vessels.

Beijing has said that it is defending its sovereignty. At the summit, a Chinese military spokesman accused the Philippines of making “provocations”.

Observers fear that any escalation could spark a conflict in the South China Sea between the Chinese and Americans. The US is bound by a treaty signed with the Philippines to come to the South East Asian nation’s defence, should it come under attack.

The US has said it will stand by its commitments to its allies in the region, and has sought to draw them closer including holding a summit with the Philippines and Japan last month.

On Friday night, Mr Marcos had just finished delivering the opening address at the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore when a delegate posed a hypothetical situation where Chinese water cannon killed a Filipino soldier. He was asked if he would consider that a red line, and if this would invoke the US-Philippines treaty.

“If by a wilful act a Filipino – not only serviceman, but even Filipino citizen – is killed… that is what I think very, very close to what we define as an act of war and therefore we will respond accordingly. And our treaty partners, I believe, also hold that same standard.”

He noted that Filipinos have been injured in recent clashes, but none had been killed yet. “Once we get to that point, that is certainly, we would have crossed the Rubicon. Is that a red line? Almost certainly it’s going to be a red line.”

Asked by the BBC for comment, a Chinese military spokesman said that “if only one personnel was accidentally killed in a conflict or accident that triggers war, then I really believe it’s a belligerent country”.

Hours later US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a speech that “the harassment that the Philippines has faced is dangerous – plain and simple”.

When asked how the US would respond to the situation posed to Mr Marcos, he said that while their commitment to their treaty with the Philippines was “ironclad”, he would not speculate on how the US might react.

But he said they would continue to increase dialogue and promote freedom of navigation in the seas and skies. “Our goal is to make sure that we don’t allow things to spiral out of control unnecessarily,” he said. “A war or a fight with China is neither imminent, in my view, or unavoidable.”

Addressing a roomful of delegates mostly from Asia, he underscored the US’ commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, which he said remained their priority, despite the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts.

He listed the ways they were building up various Asian countries’ defences through military exercises, agreements, and US troop presence. “The United States can be secure only if Asia is secure,” he said.

One key part of the US strategy is beefing up the Philippines’ military. A years-long defence roadmap with the US may see the superpower sending drones, military transport aircraft and defence systems. Manila is also angling to get a sizeable chunk of a proposed US military aid package for its allies in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Philippines is also increasing its own military spending and has acquired missiles from India.

The issue of China-Philippine tensions cropped up earlier in the summit at a key meeting between Mr Austin and his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun on Friday.

The Chinese military said the Philippines was “emboldened and supported by outside powers” and “has broken its own promises and making provocations” over the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila has established a military outpost.

They also objected to the US sending a mid-range missile system to the Philippines in a recent joint military exercise, saying it “posed a real threat to regional security”.

But both the US and China have also signalled they were keen on improving communications to avoid conflict.

The US said it was working on resuming telephone conversations between military commanders – a key line of communication that was severed in 2022 after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan – and on establishing a crisis communications working group.

“I told Mr Dong that if he calls me on urgent matter, I will answer the phone. And I certainly hope that he’ll do the same. And it’s that communication.. that will help to keep things in the right place and help us move things towards a greater stability and security in the region,” said Mr Austin.

A Chinese military spokesman told reporters that the meeting was “positive, practical and constructive”. He added that the US-China relationship was “stabilising from further deterioration”.

John Swinney said he wants the SNP – which won 48 seats in the last election – to hold on to its current status as the third largest party at Westminster.

And he said his party again winning a majority of seats in Scotland would see him attempt to “open up” the process of independence.

Mr Swinney succeeded Humza Yousaf as SNP leader and first minister less than a month ago.

Recent opinion polls have suggested his party is facing a tough fight with Labour on 4 July if it is to continue to be Scotland’s biggest party at Westminster.

Mr Yousaf resigned after ending a power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens, which means the SNP now runs a minority government in the Scottish Parliament.

The party has also had to deal with an on-going police investigation into its finances.

Last week this resulted in a report being sent to Scotland’s prosecution service in relation to former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell – the husband of former leader Nicola Sturgeon – who was charged with embezzling party funds.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said earlier this week that voters were telling her party on the doorsteps that they are “fed up with the broken status quo after 17 years of the SNP and 14 years of the Tories”.

The Scottish Conservatives are hopeful of holding on to their existing seats north of the border – and believe they can win some more – and are urging voters to “show the SNP the red card”.

And Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton says his party’s MPs will hold the feet of the next government to the fire, whoever ends up in Downing Street.

Meanwhile, Mr Swinney denied he is feeling the heat from Labour despite taking over the leadership after a difficult period for his party.

He said: “That’s why I’m here. I’m here because the SNP faced a tough challenge and faces that.

“But we’re working around the country to try to overcome that and I’m giving it all of my energy to make sure the SNP successful in this election.”

The choice facing the electorate on 4 July has been framed as a straight battle for Number 10 between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

But Mr Swinney denied the easiest way to “get rid of the Tories” was to vote Labour.

He said: “We’ve got six Tory MPs in Scotland and the SNP are the challengers in every single one of those constituencies.

“So we’re second place in each constituency.

“So if we want to numerically get rid of the Tories in Scotland, people should vote SNP and that will get rid of the Tories in those constituencies.”

Mr Swinney said he believed it was important for the SNP to continue to be the third largest party in the United Kingdom and criticised the decision to exclude the party from some UK-wide TV leadership debates.

He said: “I think it’s ridiculous that broadcasters are tolerating a situation that they’re not having the leader of the third party on their on their broadcast debates.

“I think it’s absolutely preposterous.

“It’s anti democratic, and broadcasters need to reflect on it.”

Asked what he could do to force a fresh independence poll, Mr Swinney said: “Well we can maintain the pressure on Westminster to actually follow a democratic plan, because it is ridiculous that in a western democracy, a UK government would stand in the face of the wishes and the will of people in Scotland to be democratic.”

The SNP leader said this was “to his credit” accepted by then Prime Minister David Cameron when he agreed to hold a referendum in 2014, which saw voters back remaining in the UK by 55% to 45%..

He added: “I think that and that was accepted across the entire political spectrum.

“So that very simple principle that the people of this country have the right to self determination should be respected.

On the domestic front, Mr Swinney was challenged about statistics which show a greater percentage of patients in Scotland are waiting up to two years for treatment compared to England.

He said: “Well we’re making progress on sorting that out and those long waits are coming down.

“But I accept that’s not good enough.

“So we have to improve that performance.”

The SNP leader said other indicators demonstrated Accident and Emergency performance in Scotland was the best in the UK and had been for nine years.

But when it was put to him that the waits were a “big thing” for those on the lists, he said: “I accept that health service performance is not where it needs to be.

“A lot of that is the aftermath of Covid and the impact that’s had on the system, but it’s also the impact of austerity.

“That’s why I made my call today for any incoming government to commit to end austerity.”

Mr Swinney said the next government must invest in the health service and warned Labour’s decision to sign up for the spending arrangements of the Tories would be “disastrous”.