{"id":168744,"date":"2025-06-08T22:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T22:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/168744\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T22:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T22:54:08","slug":"john-swinney-insists-he-will-not-quit-despite-nats-holyrood-by-election-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/168744\/","title":{"rendered":"John Swinney insists he will not quit despite Nats\u2019 Holyrood by-election disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>JOHN Swinney yesterday insisted he will not quit despite Nats\u2019 Holyrood by-election disaster.<\/p>\n<p>The First Minister shrugged off calls from SNP grandees to resign after losing the formerly safe seat of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse to Labour.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Head-and-shoulders photo of John Swinney, First Minister of Scotland.\" height=\"693\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"PA\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/file-photo-dated-03-04-997689430.jpg\" data-caption=\"The First MInister did hint that a long-rumoured cabinet reshuffle is imminent\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/file-photo-dated-03-04-997689430.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>The First MInister did hint that a long-rumoured cabinet reshuffle is imminentCredit: PA<a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour leader, seated with arms crossed.\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"Getty\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/scottish-labour-leader-anas-sarwar-997196176.jpg\" data-caption=\"Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused Mr Swinney of pushing voters to Reform UK.\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/scottish-labour-leader-anas-sarwar-997196176.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused Mr Swinney of pushing voters to Reform UK.Credit: Getty<\/p>\n<p>Former deputy leader Jim Sillars and ex-Cabinet minister Alex Neil urged him to end his year-long reign.<\/p>\n<p>But Mr Swinney claimed Nats are making \u201creal progress\u201d on key policies. <\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cTwelve months ago, the party turned to me at a moment of real jeopardy. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It asked me to use all my skills and experience to bring people together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will win again.\u201d<br \/>But he did signal a long-rumoured cabinet reshuffle is imminent, saying: \u201cI\u2019ll have to look at the team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And he failed to rule out a fresh coalition with Greens if the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/scottish-national-party\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SNP<\/a> fall well short of a majority at next year\u2019s Holyrood election, as polls suggest.<\/p>\n<p>Scottish <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/scottish-labour\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Labour<\/a> leader Anas Sarwar accused Mr Swinney of pushing voters to Reform UK.<\/p>\n<p>His deputy Jackie Baillie said: \u201cFar from steadying the ship, John Swinney has sailed the SNP into another iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meghan Markle Expands As Ever: From Lifestyle Brand to Hospitality Empire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JOHN Swinney yesterday insisted he will not quit despite Nats\u2019 Holyrood by-election disaster. The First Minister shrugged off&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,527,1102,918,4884,7852,712,8545,5119,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-168744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-conservative-party","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-glasgow","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-john-swinney","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-scottish-national-party","16":"tag-section-newsscottish-news","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114650209801062109","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}