The rise of Reform UK in Scotland has splintered the unionist vote, simplifying the electoral arithmetic for the SNP to claim a third successive decade in power. Swinney has pitched himself as the only UK leader willing to take on Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage, whom he describes as the “antithesis of kindness”.

Scotland's First Minister John Swinney has revealed he will vote against assisted dying legislation because it "is the wrong course for us to take as a society."

Writing in the Daily Record, First Minister John Swinney says the Scottish Government will make Scots' lives better.