{"id":948737,"date":"2026-05-09T17:27:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948737\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T17:27:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:27:32","slug":"swinney-keen-to-work-with-fellow-nationalist-devolved-leaders-in-uk-john-swinney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948737\/","title":{"rendered":"Swinney keen to work with fellow nationalist devolved leaders in UK | John Swinney"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Swinney has said he plans to work with the nationalist first ministers in Wales and Northern Ireland<\/a> in a coordinated opposition to Labour\u2019s policies on the cost of living and UK government spending.<\/p>\n

The Scottish National party leader said he had spoken to Michelle O\u2019Neill, the Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> first minister of Northern Ireland, on Friday night after she had called to congratulate him on his party\u2019s \u201cemphatic\u201d victory in the Holyrood elections.<\/p>\n

Swinney, who will be sworn in as Scotland\u2019s first minister next week, said he expected Plaid Cymru\u2019s leader<\/a>, Rhun ap Iorwerth, to be appointed first minister of Wales after winning the Senedd elections for the first time on Thursday.<\/p>\n

He said he \u201clooked forward to making sure our respective countries\u2019 voices are heard loud and clear in the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill, who has to work jointly with the Democratic Unionist party in Stormont, so has limits to her authority, had made clear her enthusiasm for all three nationalist-led governments working in concert, Swinney added.<\/p>\n

Map of Scotland showing results<\/a><\/p>\n

That alliance would take shape against a background of increased political conflict in Holyrood and the Senedd with the arrival of Reform UK, now in second place in both parliaments, as well as Swinney\u2019s efforts to press for a second Scottish independence referendum.<\/p>\n

To the shock of other Holyrood leaders, Reform came joint second on Thursday with Scottish Labour, both winning 17 seats. That will give Reform\u2019s Scottish leader, Malcolm Offord, the right to ask the opening questions at first minister\u2019s questions, while Reform could get committee convenership posts.<\/p>\n

Swinney said the three leaders were likely to challenge the UK government\u2019s increasing use of the Internal Markets Act, a measure designed to harmonise the UK\u2019s internal trade and business regulations post-Brexit, to impose policies \u201cover the heads\u201d of the three devolved administrations.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cBelieve you me, that causes fury in all devolved governments, and perhaps us all working in concert with a shared agenda might get us somewhere on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinney also cited the previous campaigns by the Scottish and Welsh Labour governments to lift the two-child benefit cap and said all three parties were very clear about the merits of rejoining the EU to address the UK\u2019s economic decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK is in a fundamentally different position and the bit that\u2019s got to catch up with this is Whitehall, and the sooner they do the better,\u201d he said. \u201cI will be pressing for that to be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a victory speech on the steps of the Senedd on Saturday, ap Iorwerth echoed Swinney\u2019s points before his comments were drowned out by the crowd\u2019s impromptu rendition of Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (the land of my fathers) \u2013 the Welsh national anthem \u2013 he hailed what he called a \u201cnew beginning\u201d for Wales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ap Iorwerth said: \u201cIt is a new beginning and I have no doubt that when we speak with a national voice that is as determined as we have seen in this election, no UK government, no UK prime minister, now or in the future, can cast Wales aside or turn a blind eye to our needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian understands from Plaid Cymru<\/a> sources that the SNP and Sinn F\u00e9in have already helped the party prepare for government in Cardiff.<\/p>\n

UK government sources have indicated they are unperturbed by the prospects of the three parties collaborating. Speaking before the election, one said that having different parties in different administrations \u201cis in the very nature of democracy\u201d and had been normal since the advent of devolution.<\/p>\n

Swinney confirmed he would table a draft bill calling for Holyrood to be given the powers to stage a second independence referendum next week; that document will have no legal force because under the Scotland<\/a> Act 1998, which set it up, Holyrood has no powers to legislate on constitutional change.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he had a mandate to do so given the SNP had failed to achieve the overall majority that Swinney said before the election was the precondition for such a demand, he said the addition of 14 Scottish Green party MSPs meant Holyrood had its largest ever pro-independence majority.<\/p>\n

Even so, Swinney avoided claiming that presented the Scottish government with a cast-iron mandate.<\/p>\n

He confirmed he is refusing to collaborate with Reform next week beyond the basic legally required steps. Offord said that was \u201carrogant, petty and deeply undemocratic\u201d and contradicted Swinney\u2019s claims he favoured democracy and inclusion.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Glasgow with his victorious candidates, Offord claimed his party would bring \u201ca different level of scrutiny\u201d to Holyrood, \u201cespecially if the SNP get into some sort of alliance with extremist Greens\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked to define extremist policies, Offord said: \u201cLegalising drugs? Or abolishing prisons? Or having open borders? I think that\u2019s pretty extremist.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the Scottish Greens want to decriminalise illegal drug use and do not have a policy of abolishing prisons, although they favour locking up fewer people and focusing on community rehabilitation; nor do they have a policy on open borders but want an end to the hostile environment strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Swinney has said he plans to work with the nationalist first ministers in Wales and Northern Ireland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-948737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116545798102864245","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948737","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=948737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}