(Image: Jane Barlow)
John Swinney has insisted that the campaign for an independence referendum "has already begun" as he launched a new drive to win over undecided voters.
The First Minister told delegates at the SNP conference in Aberdeen that the Choose Scotland campaign, launching this weekend, would "reach those yet to be convinced of the case for independence" and be "the most sophisticated campaign that we have ever undertaken".
He told the party faithful that the campaign was "backed by our six-figure war chest".
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The party's finances have recovered after a difficult few years, though from a low base.
Accounts published by the Electoral Commission in August showed the SNP made a surplus of £509,903 in 2025, compared with a deficit of £383,707 the year before, after cutting its wage bill from £1.17m to £780,878 and reducing staff numbers.
Membership, the party's main source of income, has fallen to around 51,000 from a peak of about 125,000 in 2019.
The accounts also showed the SNP was still carrying a £60,000 loan from Peter Murrell, its former chief executive, who was jailed for five years and three months in June after admitting embezzling £400,310.65 from the party between 2010 and 2022.
The First Minister’s official spokesman would not say how much money the SNP has put behind the Choose Scotland campaign.
Asked how big the “six-figure war chest” actually is, he said £100,000 would be spent initially, and that this was “the start”.
He also would not say whether the money would be ring-fenced for the campaign, or whether the party planned a fundraising drive to add to it.
The spokesman declined to say whether any of the £400,310 embezzled by Peter Murrell would go into the campaign fund if the party recovered it through proceeds of crime proceedings, saying that was a matter for the court process.
In his speech Mr Swinney claimed support for independence was "now leading in poll after poll".
He pointed to a Survation poll commissioned by the Forum for Research and Energy (FoRE) which projected that Scots would vote for independence by 54% to 46% if a second referendum were held tomorrow, once "don't knows" are removed.
"One by one, the stars are aligning in our favour," he said. "In Holyrood, the Westminster parties are weaker than they have ever been. In Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast, every first minister now supports our nation's right to self-determination.
"In Westminster, unionists are united in their panic. You might say there's panic on the streets of London. I hear there's panic on the streets of Manchester too. Support for independence is now leading in poll after poll."
There has been a slew of polls published this week ahead of the SNP conference. The picture is mixed.
While a Survation poll commissioned by the SNP found 52% in favour of independence, a YouGov study found 53% would vote No, and More in Common put support for remaining in the UK at 52%.
Mr Swinney told delegates the SNP's "election landslide" in May had put the party in a strong position.
While the SNP was by some distance the biggest party in Holyrood, the First Minister fell short of his ambition of winning a majority, returning 58 MSPs, six fewer than in 2021.
However, Mr Swinney told members gathered in the north-east: "We have got ourselves into a fantastically strong position. And from that strong position, we are going to step up a gear."
"The referendum campaign on Scottish independence has already begun," he added. "Friends, Choose Scotland will offer hope but it will also offer ambition.
"Some think we should just be like Manchester. 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. If ever there was a time where people were looking for hope and ambition, it is now."
Mr Swinney argued that the issues once used to argue against independence now favoured it.
He said: "The UK that people voted for in 2014 is no more. Back then, people were told that these were the biggest arguments against independence. But now, pensions, defence and EU membership have become some of the strongest arguments for independence."
He said the UK's abolition of the triple lock was "a policy of economic despair", and added: "Nuclear weapons have always been an obscenity."
First Minister John Swinney, with wife Elizabeth and son Matthew, looks over his speech before delivering it at the SNP conference (Image: Jane Barlow/PA)
Mr Swinney closed his speech on a personal note, speaking about his youngest son, Matthew, who was in the hall.
He said: "You see friends I am not just the First Minister. I am a father.
"My greatest task is to leave Scotland a better place – the best place it can be – for him. Each of us here has their own emotional connection to our country’s cause.
"Each of us has their own motivation.
"Matthew is mine. He is on the cusp of adulthood.
"Nothing is more important to me than building a country on the cusp of statehood, for my son."
The First Minister became emotional, pausing briefly. There was sustained applause from delegates.
"For my son. Why? Because friends, what are past glories, what are old stories, if we cannot build a future fit for our children?
"We do not build the future on nostalgia, for what has gone before. We build the future on the dreams of those who come next."
Mr Swinney ended his speech with a contrast between what he called the “quiet confidence” of modern Scotland and an older national mood.
Speaking about families cheering on the Scotland women’s football team and the Tiree music festival he attends with his son, he said: “No fragile bravado as in days of old, but the quiet confidence of a nation ever more comfortable in its own skin.”
Asked afterwards to explain what Mr Swinney meant by fragile bravado, his official spokesman said it was about people expressing their identity and their love of Scotland in a relaxed, confident way, and that Scots felt less insecure about how the country was seen around the world.
Mr Swinney went on to tell delegates that Scotland was ready for independence and that “our independence is very, very close.”
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Responding, Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie described it as a "thin and threadbare speech".
"Rather than indulging in endless political point-scoring, people across Scotland want to hear answers on how to tackle the issues that matter most to them," she said.
"That means setting out all of the details for public sector reform, a strategy for getting our NHS back on track, and charting a way toward restoring our education system to what it once was."
Dame Jackie said it was "disappointing" that there was no "commitment from John Swinney to work with Labour" on plans for further devolution.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said Mr Swinney was "inevitably and recklessly indulged his obsession of breaking up our great country at a time of increasing threats and uncertainty".
He added: "His divisive rhetoric serves as distraction from the SNP's miserable 20-year record of failure.
“SNP members might also have expected him to explain why he and Nicola Sturgeon shut down questions about Peter Murrell, thereby allowing him to steal their cash."