John Swinney: Who is the frontrunner to replace SNP leader and First Minister Humza Yousaf?
The race is on to find a new SNP leader and first minister of Scotland.
Humza Yousaf announced he was stepping down on Monday after little more than a year in the hot seat.
He intends to remain in the two posts until a successor is found.
Former deputy first minister John Swinney is the first to announce he intends to enter the race.
Ex-finance secretary Kate Forbes had been tipped to join him, but has since announced she does not intend to stand and will throw her support behind Mr Swinney.
Who is John Swinney?
Edinburgh-born Mr Swinney has spent a year on the backbenches after he stepped down as deputy first minister when Nicola Sturgeon resigned in 2023.
The 60-year-old first joined the SNP in 1979 at the age of 15. He became a prominent figure in the party’s youth wing before climbing the ranks to become the SNP’s national secretary at the age of 22.
Mr Swinney has been an MSP since the Scottish parliament’s inception in 1999, serving North Tayside, and previously representing the same constituency at Westminster in 1997.
Nicola Sturgeon, John Swinney and Alex Salmond in 2011. Pic: PA
The Perthshire North MSP, who was also finance secretary under Alex Salmond’s government, is said by his supporters to have the experience needed to lead the country following Mr Yousaf’s departure.
He took over from Mr Salmond as SNP leader in 2000, but resigned in 2004 following poor European parliament election results.
Under Ms Sturgeon, he occupied several ministerial offices, including education secretary, COVID-19 recovery secretary and again in finance – taking over from Kate Forbes during her maternity leave.
During his time as Ms Sturgeon’s deputy, he cemented his reputation as a dogged defender of his boss, as well as an SNP stalwart.
John Swinney is a close ally of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon. Pic: PA
However, he faced two close no-confidence votes in Holyrood, first over the handling of school exams during the pandemic, and then his initial refusal to publish legal advice during the inquiry into the botched handling of harassment complaints against Mr Salmond.
He ruled himself out of the 2023 leadership race to replace Ms Sturgeon, citing that he had to put his young family first.
Within hours of Mr Yousaf’s resignation, several senior figures within the SNP voiced their support for Mr Swinney, including the party’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, education secretary Jenny Gilruth, and MPs Pete Wishart, Ian Blackford and Alyn Smith.
John Swinney announcing his leadership bid. Pic: PA
Announcing his intention to enter the SNP leadership race, Mr Swinney admitted that his party is “not as cohesive as it needs to be” to achieve its goal of Scottish independence.
He added: “I believe I have the experience, the skills, and I command the trust and the confidence of people across this country to bring the SNP back together again and get us focused on what we do best – uniting Scotland, delivering for the people and working to create the best future for our country.”
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John Swinney announcing his leadership bid. Pic: PA
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If elected, Mr Swinney said he wants Ms Forbes to “play a significant part” in his government.
He said: “She is an intelligent, creative, thoughtful person who has much to contribute to our national life. And if elected, I will make sure that Kate is able to make that contribution.”
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Read more:
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Yousaf warns against toxic leadership contest
Nominations for SNP leader close at noon on Monday.
Prospective candidates will have to gain the support of 100 members from 20 different SNP branches to qualify for the contest.
Any potential ballot will then open at 12pm on Monday 13 May and will close at noon on Monday 27 May.
Thousands more Afghan nationals may have been affected by another data breach, the government has said.
Up to 3,700 Afghans brought to the UK between January and March 2024 have potentially been impacted as names, passport details and information from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy has been compromised again, this time by a breach on a third party supplier used by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
This was not an attack directly on the government but a cyber security incident on a sub-contractor named Inflite – The Jet Centre – an MoD supplier that provides ground handling services for flights at London Stansted Airport.
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July: UK spies exposed in Afghan data breach
The flights were used to bring Afghans to the UK, travel to routine military exercises, and official engagements. It was also used to fly British troops and government officials.
Those involved were informed of it on Friday afternoon by the MoD, marking the second time information about Afghan nationals relocated to the UK has been compromised.
It is understood former Tory ministers are also affected by the hack.
Earlier this year, it emerged that almost 7,000 Afghan nationals would have to be relocated to the UK following a massive data breach by the British military that successive governments tried to keep secret with a super-injunction.
Defence Secretary John Healey offered a “sincere apology” for the first data breach in a statement to the House of Commons, saying he was “deeply concerned about the lack of transparency” around the data breach, adding: “No government wishes to withhold information from the British public, from parliamentarians or the press in this manner.”
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July: Afghan interpreter ‘betrayed’ by UK govt
The previous Conservative government set up a secret scheme in 2023 to relocate Afghan nationals impacted by the data breach, but who were not eligible for an existing programme to relocate and help people who had worked for the British government in Afghanistan.
The mistake exposed personal details of close to 20,000 individuals, endangering them and their families, with as many as 100,000 people impacted in total.
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Afghan data leak timeline
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A government spokesperson said of Friday’s latest breach: “We were recently notified that a third party sub-contractor to a supplier experienced a cyber security incident involving unauthorised access to a small number of its emails that contained basic personal information.
“We take data security extremely seriously and are going above and beyond our legal duties in informing all potentially affected individuals. The incident has not posed any threat to individuals’ safety, nor compromised any government systems.”
In a statement, Inflite – The Jet Centre confirmed the “data security incident” involving “unauthorised access to a limited number of company emails”.
“We have reported the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office and have been actively working with the relevant UK cyber authorities, including the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre, to support our investigation and response,” it said.
“We believe the scope of the incident was limited to email accounts only, however, as a precautionary measure, we have contacted our key stakeholders whose data may have been affected during the period of January to March 2024.”
BitMine and SharpLink are raising over $25 billion to expand Ether treasuries as US debt hits $37 trillion, fueling bullish crypto market sentiment.
The Federal Reserve said it would sunset a program specifically to monitor banks’ digital assets activities and would integrate them back into its “standard supervisory process.”
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