John Swinney, the former SNP leader deemed boring by Sean Connery
As she announced her resignation in Bute House, Nicola Sturgeon declared him “the best friend I could ever have wished for”.
Now John Swinney, her former deputy who had a turn of his own at the top of the SNP two decades ago, will likely become party leader once again and, ultimately, lead Scotland.
Mr Swinney, 60, has been an MSP since day one of devolution in 1999, and became the SNP’s national secretary at just 22, having joined the party at age 15.
The SNP stalwart was first elected as MP for North Tayside in 1997 – taking the seat from the Conservatives in the year of the Labour landslide.
He ultimately became leader of the party at the turn of the century - but not with great success.
Under his leadership, the SNP suffered at the 2001 UK general election and lost eight seats in the Scottish Parliament in 2003.
Actor and keen independence advocate Sean Connery was of the belief that Swinney was boring and lacked energy, Iain Martin wrote in The Times. It was seemingly a view shared by senior party figures, known as the “men in grey kilts”, as Mr Swinney was forced to stand down in 2004.
This came despite seeing off a leadership challenge the previous year against little-known party activist Dr Bill Wilson, who said he wished to fight against the “New Labourisation” of the SNP.
Twenty years after the party rid themselves of Mr Swinney as party leader, he is now back at the helm – billed as a safe pair of hands to steady the ship after a tumultuous year.
Not that he has ever spent much time far from the forefront of the party. He was secretary for finance when the SNP entered government in Scotland in 2007 under Alex Salmond. He remained in the role for the duration of Salmond’s tenure, weathering the storms of the 2008 financial crisis and the failed independence referendum.
Ms Sturgeon later promoted the MSP for Perthshire North to deputy first minister when she ascended to power in 2014.
The two worked incredibly closely for the duration of her time as Scottish leader, with the ex-first minister telling him she could not have wished for a better “partner in government” when he stood down with her in 2023.
That is not to say that his time as deputy leader was not without difficulty, as he faced two no confidence votes in two years. He faced the first as education secretary after thousands of teacher grade estimates during the pandemic were initially marked down, before he about-turned on the issue.
The second came when he initially refused to publish legal advice during the inquiry into the botched handling of harassment complaints against his old boss Mr Salmond.
The two votes are seen as a key motivation for the SNP to do a deal with the Scottish Greens after the election in 2021, the dismantling of which was the ultimate undoing of Humza Yousaf.
Being charged with the handling of the Holyrood inquiry into Mr Salmond is an indication of how trusted Mr Swinney was by Ms Sturgeon, particularly with regard to the thorniest issues of her leadership.
He was known in some circles, according to the BBC, as the Minister for Good Morning Scotland due to his frequency on the airwaves advocating for the party during her tenure.
Ms Sturgeon’s dogged defender later saw himself ushered into the role of Covid recovery secretary in 2021.
Fourteen months ago, Mr Swinney ruled himself out of taking over from Ms Sturgeon as leader of the SNP. He said that he had to do what was “right for my family, the SNP and our country”.
But following the fall of Mr Yousaf, he has decided that the right thing to do this time round is to throw his hat into the ring.
“I want to unite the SNP and unite Scotland for Independence,” he declared as he launched his bid.
His SNP backers, including Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, and the majority of voters for the party in a recent poll, support him in doing so.
But it remains to be seen whether he will be as well received by the broader Scottish public, among whom the same poll found Kate Forbes to be a more popular choice.
