John Swinney has said it is a “huge privilege” to be First Minister, but accepted his rise to the top job in Scottish politics “wasn’t part of a well-crafted plan”.
He said he had considered standing for the post – and therefore also first minister – when Nicola Sturgeon stood down
He said: “I had thought about standing for leadership in 2023 but decided it was time for me to just take a different approach in life, so I stood down happily.”
Humza Yousaf succeeded Ms Sturgeon, but then he dramatically ended the SNP’s powersharing agreement with the SNP at Holyrood, and “events took their course very, very quickly”, Mr Swinney said.
He had been “adjusting to life on the back benches” at Holyrood and had “begun to think” about what he might do next when Mr Yousaf ejected the Greens from their role in the Scottish Government in April 2024, which rapidly led to his resignation as first minister and SNP leader.
“Events took their course very very quickly,” Mr Swinney told the PA news agency.
“Within three of four days I was on course to becoming the First Minister of Scotland. Things move kind of fast in politics.”
He said that at the time he “quite genuinely feared for the future of my party because of the situation that was prevailing”.
After being “struck by the number of people and the range of people” who contacted him urging him to run for the post, he put himself forward, and was voted in by MSPs at Holyrood on May 7 2024, before being formally sworn in at the Court of Session the following day.
Mr Swinney said: “If you have devoted your adult life to the Scottish National Party it is quite difficult to hear that and not respond in the way I responded, by standing for the party leadership and to be the First Minister.”
But he added: “It wasn’t part of a well-crafted plan, it happened.”
However he stressed: “I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to serve Scotland in the way I have had for the last 12 months as First Minister, in a role I never envisaged I would be doing, and to make the difference I have been able to make.”
Elected as an SNP MP in 1997, Mr Swinney is the only remaining elected parliamentarian in Scotland who voted in 1998 for the legislation brought in by Tony Blair’s government that established the devolved Scottish Parliament.
He said he was “the last one standing who actually went through the lobbies to vote for the Scotland Act when it went through the House of Commons”, adding it had been a “great experience for me to support that legislation and then to see it enacted”.
Recalling how he sat through all the proceedings at Westminster about the legislation, he added: “At no moment during any of those proceedings when we were dealing with the clauses relating to the role of first minister would I ever have thought ‘that is going to be me one day’.
“So it is a huge privilege to hold office as First Minister.”
He only took on the role after considering the impact it would have on his family, including his wife, Elizabeth Quigley, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and their teenage son Matthew.
Mr Swinney said he hopes the last year has “been OK for them”, but added: “People would be staggered if I didn’t say it is very disruptive to family life, being First Minister.”
However he said he and his family “stick very close together”, adding: “We spend as much time together as we possibly can do, we try to configure things to be at events together.”
He added that when his family accompany him to events he attends as First Minister, “people are so extraordinarily kind and supportive”, saying that while the job brings “a lot of disruption” there are also “lots of nice moments and upsides and that brings us a lot of joy”.
Looking back over the last year he said high points had been attending the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome last month, and being at a service in Normandy to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in June 2024.
Mr Swinney recalled: “It was so dignified, so significant, so poignant.
On behalf of the people of Scotland, First Minister @JohnSwinney has attended the funeral of His Holiness Pope Francis in Rome. pic.twitter.com/1AIyxfz4Og
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) April 26, 2025
“I said to myself, ‘You must remember there are days of such significance as this on the days that are really tough’.”
He also described the passing of the Scottish Government’s budget earlier this year was a “landmark moment”.
The First Minister said: “The Parliament was polarised, so the budget was an absolutely pivotal moment about the survival of my Government.”
The SNP lacks a majority in the Scottish Parliament, but negotiations with other parties saw the budget approved with the support of MSPs from the Liberal Democrats, Scottish Greens and Alba.
However Mr Swinney said the general election results in July 2024, which saw his party return nine MPs, down from 48 in 2019, was “by far the toughest moment in the last 12 months”.
The SNP leader said: “We had tried very hard in the election, we had campaigned hard, I lost a huge number of really valued and respected colleagues.”
But he said the SNP has “built back out of that”, adding: “We’re now back in a position where we are leading in the opinion polls and we are back into winning local authority elections. We have just won five local authority by-elections in a row, so I feel that we are beginning to reconstruct the SNP’s ability to win elections.”
