The Scottish National Party begins its 90th annual conference in Edinburgh today, the first time that party members have come together after the party’s disastrous showing in this year’s general election.
With the SNP having dropped from the 48 MPs that it won in 2019, to just 9 this July, the first item on the conference agenda for today is a review into the party’s electoral losses.
After opening comments from party leader John Swinney, the SNP deputy leader, Keith Brown, will then make his platform speech. On Saturday, the conference will be addressed by the SNP’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, with John Swinney closing the conference with his own key note speech on Sunday.
Looking to strike a more optimistic approach to the one seemingly being adopted by Sir Keir Starmer in London, Swinney teed up the conference by saying, “It is unbelievable that Labour expect people to accept, as the Prime Minister set out this week, that ‘things will only get worse”.
Arguing that Scotland “must unite against Labour cuts”, Swinney said, “Labour has chosen to continue Tory austerity that has hammered households for fourteen years and left families in Scotland struggling to simply make ends meet during this cost of living crisis”.
With the recent abolition of the pensioner winter fuel payment in London estimated to be costing the Scottish government some £160 million in funding, the SNP government in Edinburgh is though facing a funding crisis of its own.
Swinney has previously admitted that £250 million will need to be cut from the Scottish government’s budget in order to cover higher than expected public sector pay deals. Lacking a majority at Edinburgh following the SNPs ending of their coalition with the Scottish Greens, it is thought that the SNP may face difficulties in getting their budget through the Scottish Parliament.
This is Mr Swinney’s first party conference as SNP leader. John Swinney was elected SNP leader in April this year, after his predecessor Humza Yousaf was forced to resign after ejecting the Scottish Greens out of government, an act which later saw him lose a vote of no confidence in the Scottish
Although any SNP member can attend the party’s conference, it is understood that the former SNP leaders, Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon, will not be attending this weekend’s event.
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