John Swinney expected to declare bid to become new SNP leader
John Swinney is expected to declare his bid to become the new leader of the SNP later today, Sky News understands.
It comes after Humza Yousaf announced he was standing down as SNP leader and Scotland’s first minister following his decision last week to cut power-sharing ties with the Scottish Greens – a move which saw his leadership collapse.
Mr Swinney previously served as SNP leader between 2000 and 2004; later becoming Nicola Sturgeon’s number two from 2014 to 2023.
He is considered a front-runner for the top job once again, having garnered support from senior figures within his party, including from the SNP’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn.
The Perthshire North MSP is expected to make a statement in Edinburgh on Thursday morning.
However, he could face competition from the party’s former finance minister Kate Forbes, who narrowly lost out to Mr Yousaf in last year’s leadership election.
Kate Forbes. Pic: PA
Though the Skye, Lochaber, and Badenoch MSP has not confirmed her intention to enter the leadership contest, she has so far refused to rule herself out of the race.
“I am still considering all the options, but I also know that there is a lot of support for me across the country and across the party, and last year proved that,” she told Sky News on Tuesday.
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It comes after the outgoing first minister, Mr Yousaf, was forced to resign following the breakdown of the Bute House Agreement.
Within hours of the power-sharing deal coming to an end, Mr Yousaf faced the threat of a no confidence vote in himself, and later from one in the Scottish government.
Humza Yousaf speaking to Sky News
Mr Yousaf stepped down as Scotland’s first minister just after midday on Monday, saying he was “not willing to treat my values and principles or do deals with whomever simply for retaining power”.
He said he would remain in post until a replacement first minister was chosen.
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Jeremy Hunt will promise further tax cuts if the Tories win the next general election and will accuse the Labour Party of not being honest about how it will fund its spending pledges.
The chancellor will give a speech in London on Friday in which he will accuse his shadow, Rachel Reeves, of resorting to “playground politics” with her criticism of the high levels of taxation on UK households.
Mr Hunt will also reiterate his ambition to eradicate the national insurance tax – which the Tories have already slashed twice in a bid to move the polls – where they currently lag 20 points behind Labour.
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Labour has attacked the policy as an unfunded £46bn pledge and likened it to the policies that saw Liz Truss resign from office after just 44 days as prime minister.
The chancellor was previously forced to make clear that his desire to abolish the “unfair” national insurance tax would not happen “any time soon”.
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The chancellor described national insurance as a “tax on work” and said he believed it was “unfair that we tax work twice” when other forms of income are only taxed once.
The overall tax burden is expected to increase over the next five years to around 37% of gross domestic product – close to a post-Second World War high – but Mr Hunt will argue the furlough scheme brought in during the pandemic and the help the government gave households for heating both needed to be paid for.
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“Labour like to criticise tax rises this parliament thinking people don’t know why they have gone up – the furlough scheme, the energy price guarantee and billions of pounds of cost-of-living support, policies Labour themselves supported,” he will say.
“Which is why it is playground politics to use those tax rises to distract debate from the biggest divide in British politics – which is what happens next.
“Conservatives recognise that whilst those tax rises may have been necessary, they should not be permanent. Labour do not.”
James Murray, Labour’s shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, said: “There is nothing Jeremy Hunt can say or do to hide that fact that working people are worse off after 14 years of economic failure under the Conservatives.”
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