Starmer’s first weeks in power show Scotland needs independence, says Swinney

According to a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies measuring literacy and numeracy, students in England have fallen behind their peers in their performance over the past decade.

In the 2014 referendum, 44.7 percent of Scots were in favor of secession and 55.3 percent were against. This gave the No campaign a lead of 10.6 percentage points.

Despite their defeat, successive SNP prime ministers over the past decade have repeatedly called for another referendum.

They argued that Brexit justified holding another vote on independence against the will of the majority of Scots who voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 EU referendum.

But the SNP suffered a crushing defeat in July’s general election after putting independence on “page one, line one” of its manifesto, raising hopes that voters were finally turning their backs on the constitution.

Mr Swinney stressed that the 2014 referendum had left “an overwhelmingly positive legacy” and that Scotland was closer to independence than it was a decade ago.

On Wednesday, the First Minister told an audience of Yes activists in Edinburgh how “heartbreaking” he was at the referendum result when it quickly became clear that the separatists had lost.

He praised the “generous” response of “many leading figures in the No campaign” and said they had “shown an understanding that lifelong independence campaigners like me were really in a bad situation at that moment”.

But Mr Swinney said that despite their clear defeat, the nationalists quickly “picked themselves up” and carried on, and “that sense of empowerment lingers to this day”.

Referring to Brexit and the pandemic, the First Minister said it had been a “long, dark decade” since the No vote, but added that we “cannot live in the past”.

He said: “For ten years – ten long years – Labour told us we didn’t need independence. We just needed to get rid of the Tories.”

“Well, it has taken Keir Starmer less than ten weeks to completely refute that argument. Labour has promised no more austerity – instead they will deepen it.”

He added: “The problem for Scotland is not just an incredibly damaging Tory government in Westminster. We now have an incredibly damaging Labour government in Westminster. There is a pattern.”