And as First Minister of scotland when his party faced the latest in a series of crises. John swinney, welcome to political thinking. Lovely to be with you, thank you. It has been something of a rollercoaster six months, havent it . You retire from Front Line politics, then the First Minister of scotland is forced from office and you decide to come back into Front Line politics, come to your partys rescue. Then Rishi Sunak calls a surprise early election in the summer, then you have a bit of a kick in the general election, the westminster election. Has it all been very stomach churning . Its been absolutely a whirlwind. A whirlwind, i think is the best way to describe it, because i quite literally, in the days before Humza Yousaf resigned as First Minister, was making further plans about what would be my gentle scaling down of political activity. And i was actually on the day that he resigned, giving a reflective speech about 25 years of devolution in scotland down here in london. And
Investigation is continuing just now, that has been difficult for the snp, hard for people to move past that. There was a lack of progress, of course, on independence. A number of people who have criticised a strategy that Nicola Sturgeon pursued, that Hamza Yusuf pursued as well, her successor, and of course Nicola Sturgeon was such a successful politician. She resigned quite suddenly and was replaced by Hamza Yusuf as her predecessor, who had a short time as First Minister and of course, he did not have the support at holyrood in the chamber i do not have enough mps to get things through. So there were a minority government, they had lost their Partnership Support so he had to go. John swinney is now coming in, trying to address a lot of those problems, a lot of those problems beyond their control, such as the police investigation. 0ther control, such as the police investigation. Other problems, when it comes to delivering, for example, Government Advisers here quite candid, say, yes
Work recognise thats how it will have to work im recognise thats how it will have to work. Im leading a minority government, i will need to reach out to others government, i will need to reach out to others to government, i will need to reach out to others to make things happen, to Pass Legislation, to agree a budget, to pass Pass Legislation, to agree a budget, to Pass Legislation to agree a budget to Pass Legislation to agree a budget. These sound like dry, technical budget. These sound like dry, technical parliamentary terms but what they technical parliamentary terms but what they mean in reality is, if we want what they mean in reality is, if we want to what they mean in reality is, if we want to fund our schools and hospitals, if we want to give our businesses a competitive edge, if we want to businesses a competitive edge, if we want to take climate action, if we want want to take climate action, if we want to want to take climate action, if we want to eradicate child poverty, i
This is bbc news, the headlines we can go to the Scottish Parliament where there is an election taking place to choose the new First Minister, to replace humza yousaf. John swinney is now in the process and the votes are being cast for him and the votes are being cast for him and it is expected he will imminently be leader of the Scottish National party but he needs to be formally elected as First Minister by the Scottish Parliament and that is what is happening right now. All of the Party Leaders are allowed to nominate themselves as First Minister and it is now the turn of john swinney and he is expected to have a majority of votes. Voting is pretty simple, msps press a button to register their preference. We can now have a listen. The to register their preference. We can now have a listen. Now have a listen. The vote is closed. Could now have a listen. The vote is closed. Could any now have a listen. The vote is closed. Could any member. Now have a listen. The vote is l closed. Coul