IF YOU WANT INDYREF2.. GO OUT AND VOTE FOR IT

FM insists splitting up the Union is best for Scotland

- BY CHRIS MCCALL

JOHN Swinney claims Scots should be “livid” if the PM refuses to sanction a second independence referendum should the SNP win a majority at the next Holyrood election.

The First Minister used his first speech of 2026 in Glasgow yesterday to insist ending the Union is the “best way” to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and to help the NHS.

But he told Scots that they “have to go out and vote for it” when polls open on May 7.

Swinney has repeatedly said that if his party wins 65 or more MSPs it should be viewed as a mandate to call an IndyRef2 following the precedent established in 2011 after Alex Salmond’s landslide election win.

Polls suggest the SNP is comfortably ahead of both Reform UK and Scottish Labour but does not yet command enough support to secure a majority.