JOHN Swinney has asked MSPs to formally request the transfer of powers from the UK Government to Scotland to allow a second independence referendum to be held.
The First Minister opened the debate in the Holyrood debating chamber on Tuesday afternoon, with MSPs set to vote on the motion at around 5pm.
Read Swinney's full speech to Holyrood below.
John Swinney full speech as MSPs debate second referendum powers
Presiding officer,
During the election, I promised a Scottish Government that works for Scotland. And that is what I will deliver.
I will be a First Minister for all of Scotland, leading a government that is always, always on Scotland’s side.
A government that is ambitious for Scotland, with a stronger NHS.
Building on the progress that has already been made to make it even easier for our fellow citizens to access NHS services when they need them.
Ambitious for Scotland, with the best cost-of-living support in the UK protected and expanded, with new ways to help our fellow Scots with their weekly costs.
This was a cost of living election. That was the number one issue for voters across Scotland, and so I can give this guarantee: I will be a First Minister focused on the cost of living, leading a government that is on the side of fairness, a government that will work to deliver a fair deal for all in our land who are struggling to make ends meet.
And ambitious for Scotland because we have a vision that can truly transform our nation and its prospects.
The one real change that can take us from this decade and more of political chaos and economic stagnation with the UK to greater security and prosperity as an independent member state of the EU.
That is the fresh start Scotland so badly needs and, Presiding Officer, it is the future this parliament can endorse today.
Prosperity, security, and fairness: As we begin the new journey of this new session of our nation’s parliament, these will be my watchwords.
Greater prosperity for our nation, with a relentless focus on supporting innovation, on enterprise and doing all we can to maximise Scotland’s productivity and increase our levels of sustainable economic growth.
That will mean rethinking the structures of the state, with more strategic regions empowered to make the most of the many economic opportunities and advantages they enjoy – and there are many: diverse and vibrant cities, the breathtaking beauty of our landscape, fertile farmland, iconic industries, and resource rich seas.
Reimagining the state as an enabler, with overly complex and cumbersome bureaucracy removed, unnecessary regulation that gets in the way of investment and job creation simplified.
Regulation serves a vital purpose, but to work, it must be regulation that both protects and permits, regulation that provides pathways not obstacles to investment, opportunity, and growth.
At the outset of this Parliament, I want to emphasize the centrality of achieving higher levels of sustainable economic growth to the government I lead.
We will invest in our young people, who are the source and foundation of future success, and we will empower our educators.
150,000 apprenticeships.
Teacher-pupil ratios kept as the best in the UK. More schools and colleges rebuilt or upgraded.
We will invest also in essential infrastructure – necessary road improvements, including our commitment to complete the dualling of the A9 and the A96, new stations and ongoing electrification of our rail network, and investment of £4.9 billion to build thousands more homes, homes people can afford.
We will expand our successful Techscaler programme to new sectors – like creative industries, food and drink, climate and agricultural technologies, advanced manufacturing, and space technology – and introduce a new national network of Pre-Start Centres to support our brightest and best to test and refine their ideas before progressing to Techscaler.
And we will establish a High-Growth Unit to identify and support businesses with the potential to grow, and grow significantly.
Have no doubt, Scotland knows what it means to lead the world.
We were at the forefront of the industrial revolution, thanks to our wealth of natural resources, thanks to a spirit of enterprise and an openness to the world, and thanks to a skilled and determined workforce with a pride in the many wonders of engineering they produced.
As we stand at the beginning of a new age of economic transformation, Scotland has the necessary resources – an abundance of clean, green energy.
We have the innovators thanks to world-class research universities.
And a skilled workforce – practical skills, technical skills, young people who are among the very best educated in Europe.
This new technological revolution is made for Scotland to succeed. Biotech, space, precision engineering, fintech, and more.
Scotland’s got what it takes to prosper in the decades to come, and Scotland has a government determined to make it happen.
Presiding officer, our programme is for a more prosperous Scotland, but it is not wealth generation for its own sake.
Under my leadership, this is and will always be a social democratic government.
That means it will be wealth creation for a purpose – to make our nation fairer, with those with the least given a helping hand by those with the most.
Greater prosperity, felt in people’s pockets: driving our commitment to cap bus fares at £2 nationwide to help people get to work, or get into town, more affordably.
And the reason we will legislate to help people with the cost of the weekly shop, so that hard-pressed households can have the peace of mind that a basket of healthy essentials, for their kids, for their family, will be available at a fair, affordable, and reliable price.
Greater national prosperity, felt directly by the people we serve, underpinning, also, our pledge to deliver more – and more flexible – childcare, and provide additional, more targeted support through an increase in the Scottish Child Payment to £40 a week for babies under one.
I know that raising children takes not only love but also time and money, and I give this clear promise to Scotland’s young families today: you have a government determined to help ease the burden and give you that bit more breathing space.
And because we know the challenges many renters experience, and the struggles they face as they seek to take that first step on the housing ladder, we will be there to offer a helping hand – support for first-time buyers of up to £10,000 towards their deposit.
Policies with the real-world needs of our citizens at their heart.
Policies that will make life easier for many, and our nation fairer for all.
Fairness through a progressive taxation system and compassionate social security system – both possible because of new powers gained by this parliament in recent years.
And the more powers we have – and there will be more – the more we can achieve.
Fairness, because we will not rest until every child in Scotland has the opportunity to succeed, regardless of the circumstances into which they are born.
That is a big ambition, but child poverty has been a scourge in Scotland for too long. It has been a weight around our necks, holding us back as a society because too many are unable to reach their full potential.
And to have such deep poverty, such intergenerational poverty, in a land of such plenty is, let us be absolutely clear, morally wrong.
We have made progress – and we should be proud of that progress – but we must now redouble our efforts so that child poverty can be eradicated from our land.
Eradicated because our public services are working together effectively to support those in greatest need.
Eradicated because our economy is growing and new resources become available to invest.
Eradicated because of targeted interventions to increase income, reduce cost, and create new opportunities for work and learning.
Fairness also, because we are resolute in our determination to pass on to the next generation a land that is more resilient in the face of climate change.
Climate change and its effects remain the greatest challenge facing our planet. Scotland has a part to play – in our own actions to reduce emissions, but also, and more so, through our expertise and innovation, through our ability to export carbon-free electricity.
In these ways, we can help other nations reduce their carbon emissions too.
Scotland may be small by some standards, but our contribution has always been great, and our ambition even greater.
Let us be clear, given all the horrifying consequences of climate inaction, there is no fair future for our country, or our planet, there is no prosperous or secure future for either, if we do not take the necessary steps to make our nation carbon neutral once and for all.
And fairness, also, that is – and must – be given effect in a just transition – a just transition that, right now, is under threat as a result of dangerous and damaging Westminster policies on energy and industry, Westminster policies that once again treat Scotland as little more than an afterthought.
Presiding Officer, Westminster control over Scotland’s energy resources has been an unmitigated disaster for our nation. What is being done to the North East today is just one more example.
There can be no doubt, the old ways have failed Scotland, so let us say loud and clear, for a just transition, for Scotland’s energy wealth to fully benefit Scotland’s people and communities, Scotland’s energy must be in Scotland’s hands.
Energy, for Scotland, is a source of opportunity, of prosperity, and of security.
At a time when energy prices are rising, at a time of energy scarcity, Scotland as an exporter of energy should have less to fear.
We produce more oil, more gas, more electricity than we need, and yet the prices we pay – as households, as businesses – are among the highest in Europe. It simply does not add up.
We have the energy, and in abundance, but we do not have the power.
So I repeat, and parliament will have the opportunity this week to agree, Scotland’s energy must be in Scotland’s hands.
Presiding Officer, these are times of great global uncertainty.
Wages have stagnated, costs have risen, with the threat of a new round of inflation, higher interest rates, and lower growth.
Technology is fuelling rapid, unpredictable change.
Parents are worried about what the future holds for their children. I know that for many, maybe even for most, it can feel as though very little can be relied on anymore.
That is why we must give our citizens confidence that there is solid ground upon which they can stand.
More financial security, because they can see that help with costs is at the very top of this government’s agenda.
A sense of security that comes from knowing that the right health and social care will be available when it is needed – from cradle to grave.
Our NHS has weathered a storm – a decade of unprecedented pressures from Covid to austerity, rampant inflation to Brexit. Dealing with the pandemic was a generational challenge and one that our NHS staff rose to.
We have faced the very worst, and we have proved ourselves resilient.
And a corner is being turned. Operations and GP numbers are up. Inpatient, outpatient, and day case waits are all down.
Progress has been made and progress will continue with a renewed focus on driving down waiting times by increasing capacity.
We will invest an additional £90 million in elective capacity and increase investment in specialist recruitment and training places.
Over the next 100 days, we will deliver at least 50,000 operations and procedures.
And by the end of this Parliament, we will ensure that no one waits longer than 26 weeks for treatment.
We will reduce demand on acute services by investing more in prevention and early intervention, including ‘one stop shops’ in communities to provide lung and heart health ‘MOTs.’
There will be a clear shift in the balance of care with more delivered in the community.
Over the next three years, general practice will receive an additional £531 million, meaning even more family doctors can be recruited as part of our plans to make it easier to access a GP and end the 8am rush.
A plan that will be turbocharged with more GP walk-in clinics. In the next 100 days, we will open at least five more and confirm locations for another 14. Open evenings, weekends, no appointment needed.
Greater security also for women and girls, with a Misogyny Bill to outlaw misogynistic harassment and abuse in Scotland.
A ban on the use of technology to create and possess deepfake intimate images.
A ban on the possession of online material containing sex offences against women and children.
And a ban on mobile phones in our schools.
Presiding Officer,
Fairness will be built into the very foundations of the new nation state we are seeking to build.
A Scottish constitution that protects our NHS and guarantees the fundamental human dignity of each and every person in our land.
A Scottish constitution rooted in the values that speak to the very best of who we are.
And security will come from being in charge of our own destiny - the true security that we have all experienced, that we all strive for, when we know that our future is in our own hands. When we know, no matter the challenge, that we are able to choose and chart the right course.
Security also from a renewed partnership with our neighbours in the EU – a true partnership of equals with 27 other nations, friends and peers. We share a continent, and we share a future.
Greater prosperity because, with the opportunity of independence, we have control over our own energy wealth and are trading freely with the biggest single market in the world as members, once again, of the European Union.
Together, these offer Scotland a golden opportunity, and it is one that I believe people will vote for resoundingly when our nation has, once again, the ability to decide our own future in an independence referendum.
And that is, of course, why Westminster currently says no, but to build on the words of one of the fathers of our self-government, we are the people, we are the people’s parliament, and we say yes.
Today, is the start of a process that I believe will lead Westminster to a yes to a referendum, and Scotland to a yes to independence.
Today, I seek confirmation from this parliament that this is a voluntary union and that the people of Scotland have the right to decide whether we remain in that union.
That is a principle that should be accepted by all those in this chamber who believe in independence but also all those who believe in the Union.
Because what is at stake are the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland.
The people have elected a new Parliament. This new Parliament has the opportunity today to make its position clear. I invite Parliament to put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands.
