John Swinney says his summit to counter populism ‘above party politics’
The Scottish First Minister will chair a summit later this month as part of efforts to counter what he sees as the rising threat of populism.
John Swinney has insisted the summit he has called for this month to seek to counter the rise of populism is “above party politics”.
Instead he said he wanted to bring people from across Scotland’s mainstream together to protect Scottish values, saying these were “threatened by the rise of populism”.
It comes as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is enjoying rising support in Scotland, with polls suggesting the party could return its first ever group of MSPs in next May’s Holyrood elections.
However Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey used his party’s Scottish conference to accuse the SNP and Reform UK of both using the “populist playbook” as Donald Trump is in the US.
Sir Ed spoke out about the “battle against the populism and nationalism of Reform and the SNP” as he addressed his party’s Scottish conference in Inverness, claiming that the future of liberal democracy in the UK was now at stake.
But Mr Swinney insisted that the SNP was a “progressive political party that has taken bold action on equalities within our society” and had also “given a welcome to people from other countries who have come to live in Scotland”.
He continued: “Those are the values of the Scottish National Party, they are the values of Scotland, they are my personal values and I want to make sure that they are the values for Scotland for tomorrow, the values that my children, my grandchildren can grow up to experience.”
He stressed this was “something precious” to him “which is above party politics, where I can use my role as First Minister of Scotland to make sure that is reflected in the outlook and perspective of our society”.
His comments came as he made clear his determination to “stand strongly and effectively against populism”.
As part of this Mr Swinney has called a summit for Wednesday April 23, where leaders of civic Scotland, together with the country’s political leaders can “express solidarity amongst our shared values”.
Mr Swinney said those values were “about inclusion, about cohesion, about bringing people together, about welcoming the differences between us”, as he also stressed the importance of “respecting the equalities agenda and the perspective of LGBTQ communities”, and of being welcoming towards immigrants.
He told the PA news agency: “I’ve been expressing for some time my deep concern about the rise of populism.”
Mr Swinney said that was why he was taking a “major initiative” to seek to “counter the effect of populism within our society”.
The SNP leader said: “We need to recognise the urgency and the severity of that challenge, and I intend as First Minister of Scotland to give the leadership that is necessary to counter that rise of populism.”
He continued: “My reason for calling the gathering together is to recognise the threat to some of the values that have always been part of the foundations of Scottish society, that I have had the benefit of living through, of growing up with, of living in a society that is anchored by those values.
“I think they are threatened by the rise of populism.
“So my intervention is not about party politics, my intervention is about community, it is about cohesion.
“It is about equalities, it is about drawing people together, using my role as First Minister, as the leader of the country to bring our people together and to say while there are forces of populism seeking to divide our society, what we are about is about bringing people together.”
