{"id":676411,"date":"2026-01-05T23:06:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/676411\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T23:06:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:06:27","slug":"scotlands-120-day-election-sprint-kicks-off-as-leaders-draw-battle-lines-for-2026-in-new-years-speeches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/676411\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland\u2019s 120-day election sprint kicks off as leaders draw battle lines for 2026 in New Year\u2019s speeches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less than a week into the new year, Scotland\u2019s political leaders are banging the electoral war drums with a series of New Year speeches laying the groundwork for 120 days of election build-up.<\/p>\n

One might suggest the gloves had come off\u2014if Scotland weren\u2019t in the frozen grasp of sub-zero temperatures.<\/p>\n

To combat the cold, rallying cries from John Swinney, Anas Sarwar, and Russell Findlay rang in the new year, lighting a fire under their supporters.<\/p>\n

Early on Monday morning, the First Minister met SNP supporters in Glasgow with the surprise proposal of a one-time bank holiday the day after Scotland open their World Cup campaign against Haiti in June.<\/p>\n

He told nationalist supporters that the additional bank holiday would properly recognise “a moment 28 years in the waiting”.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThat will mean supporters across the country can watch our men\u2019s team in their first World Cup match for almost 30 years and share in the chance for Scotland to be on the world stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s make 2026 a year where Scotland\u2019s sporting success brings our whole country together.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Swinney went on to explain his party\u2019s independence strategy, built around May\u2019s national vote, looking to Alex Salmond\u2019s 2011 election majority strategy to provide him the mandate to petition Keir Starmer for another constitutional referendum.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

A big year lies ahead for the Scottish leaders<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

The First Minister did not shy away from the \u201cambitious task\u201d of winning a majority in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt worked in 2011 and it will work in 2026,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SNP\u2019s aim is not just to win; our aim is to win the overall majority that secures Scotland the right to choose our own future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the country, Anas Sarwar and Russell Findlay delivered election-focused New Year addresses in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

\"AnasAnas Sarwar | PA<\/p>\n

The Scottish Labour leader said he was “not running to be the First Minister in denial of the truth, but the First Minister in defiance of it”.<\/p>\n

He appealed to the electorate to remember that it was not an election to render a verdict on two years of a UK Labour Government; rather, it was a vote to \u201crender a verdict on two decades of SNP Government.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Keir Starmer\u2019s popularity slides in the polls, Anas Sarwar described the Holyrood vote as “a bigger and more important question than how much you like or dislike the UK Government”.<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cIt\u2019s not an election without consequence or about protest; it\u2019s about the direction our country takes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a Scotland where one in six of us is on NHS waiting lists and one in six young people is out of work, that is not good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SNP have had their chance\u2014they\u2019ve had nearly 20 years, and they blew it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeping with the SNP pile-on in the Scottish capital, Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay was resolute that the cost-of-living crisis ought to be a \u201ctop priority\u201d in the election cycle, throughout 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s clear choice to replace Douglas Ross as leader last year set out a six-part plan to cut Scotland\u2019s taxes, funded by cutting red tape, whittling down quangos, and putting economic growth front and center in the Scottish Conservative playbook for the forthcoming parliamentary term.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Swinney has called for Scotland ‘to become independent’ | PA<\/p>\n

Whether it comes down to a stronger grasp on reality or a perceived lack of ambition, the high-achieving West of Scotland list MSP avoided suggestions he was running in 2026 to become Scotland\u2019s First Minister.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, despite a number of defections to the Liberal Democrats and Reform in 2025, the Scottish Conservatives have held their own as the second-largest party in Holyrood, and the seriousness with which Russell Findlay is taking the forthcoming election is evident in bringing the first morsels of policy to the table of ravenous journalists impatient for May\u2014give or take a new bank holiday.<\/p>\n

With extra bank holidays costing the economy somewhere in the region of \u00a32.4 billion, Findlay accused John Swinney of \u201ccommitting the most expensive pre-electoral bribe in the history of the Scottish Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Scottish politics for you, but something in his voice suggests he\u2019s already looking forward to turning off his alarms for a long lie on June 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than a week into the new year, Scotland\u2019s political leaders are banging the electoral war drums with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[113921,748,527,4884,528,12,285,712,16,3106,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-676411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-across-the-uk","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-conservative-party","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-labour-party","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-uk-politics","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115845004334773422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676411","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=676411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}