Scottish Nationalists try to get independence back on UK agenda

Alastair Reed, Bloomberg News on Oct 17, 2026

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Scottish First Minister John Swinney intensified his push for a second referendum on independence, countering Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s offer to work together and design a new model of regional empowerment.

Swinney used his address to the Scottish National Party’s annual conference in Aberdeen on Saturday to make the point that the case for independence is stronger than ever after the SNP won a fifth consecutive term in government in May’s election. His comments, a day after Burnham espoused the benefits of keeping the U.K. together, marked a fresh attempt to pressure Westminster over Scotland’s constitutional future.

“The wind is now firmly in the sails of Scotland’s independence movement,” Swinney said. “We are winning because of one simple truth. Scotland is ready to be independent.”

Constitutional matters are reserved to Westminster and the U.K. Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the Scottish Parliament could not legislate for an independence referendum without the U.K. government’s consent. Unlike in Northern Ireland, where the 1998 Good Friday Agreement provides a legal route to a referendum on Irish reunification if the U.K. government believes a majority is likely to support it, Scotland has no equivalent statutory mechanism.

In a speech in southern Scotland, Burnham reiterated that he wouldn’t change his position on Scottish independence, and argued politicians should focus on practical challenges such as the cost of living rather than constitutional disputes. He warned that Scottish communities risk falling behind if Holyrood doesn’t mirror how Westminster’s Labour government is trying to grant parts of England more control over their own affairs.

Swinney countered that greater devolution would do little to resolve the question of Scotland’s constitutional future, and would ultimately hold the country back.

“Some think we should just be like Manchester,” Swinney said in a reference to where Burnham polished his political credentials as mayor. “Well I’m afraid I disagree. Scotland is no city. We are no region. We are a nation, and soon we will be an independent nation.”

Swinney stopped short of sounding another call for revising the legal framework that would allow a new referendum, and instead used the podium to announce a campaign targeting those who are yet to sign up to the concept of Scottish sovereignty.

“Our opponents may not want to admit it but our referendum campaign on Scottish independence has already begun,” he said. “Independence is very, very close,” he added without being more specific.

Public opinion remains balanced. A Survation poll commissioned by the SNP and conducted from Sept. 18 to Oct. 12 put support for independence at 52% to 48%, excluding undecided voters.

Scotland voted to remain in the U.K. by 55% to 45% in the 2014 independence referendum, held after Westminster temporarily transferred the powers required for the vote.

That debate has since been reshaped by Brexit. In the 2016 referendum, Scotland voted by 62% to 38% to remain in the European Union, while the U.K. as a whole voted to leave. Independence supporters have argued that leaving the U.K. would give Scotland a route back into the bloc.

“We don’t have to be trapped inside Brexit,” Swinney said. “Back at the heart of Europe, that is the Scotland I choose.”

But Burnham has recently signaled his openness to Britain rejoining the EU, which could complicate that argument by offering a potential route back in without Scottish independence.

Swinney’s latest push comes after the SNP took 58 of Holyrood’s 129 seats in the May election, while the pro-independence Scottish Greens won 15, giving pro-independence parties their largest-ever majority.

Swinney has also sought to coordinate with nationalist leaders elsewhere in the U.K., joining Welsh and Irish nationalist representatives in calling for constitutional change and eventual EU membership as independent nations.

“Unionists are united in their panic,” Swinney said.

(James Ludden contributed to this report.)