SNP pushes independence plan to secure 2026 referendum mandate

First Minister John Swinney published a new Scottish Government paper on Wednesday setting out how Scotland could prosper as an independent country and pressed the case for using next year’s Holyrood election to secure a mandate for a new referendum. Titled A Fresh Start with Independence, the 91-page document was unveiled in Edinburgh and debated at the SNP’s conference in Aberdeen, where delegates voted to require an outright SNP majority at the 2026 Scottish Parliament election as the party’s chosen route to a future vote on independence.

The paper argues that independence would allow Scotland to make different economic choices and improve living standards, citing analysis used by the government to suggest Scottish households might be up to around 10,200 pounds a year better off in the long term if the country matched the performance of similar independent nations. Speaking at the launch, Mr Swinney said, "We need to be able to utilise the immense resources of our country for the benefit of all our people. Those possibilities are only available to Scotland with the fresh start of independence."

A central plank of the strategy presented to SNP members is that winning at least...