Swinney: Parliament stamps not used for campaign

Mr Swinney was also asked about his party’s manifesto commitment to opening negotiations on a second referendum with the next UK government in the event of his party winning a majority of Scottish seats in next month’s election.

He was asked how he could keep that promise when both the Conservatives and Labour have said they would not enter into discussions on independence.

Mr Swinney said: “I think this is really in the hands of the people of Scotland, to be honest, and it’s a deeply democratic question.

“In 2021, the people of Scotland elected a parliament that was committed to holding an independence referendum and which supported independence.

“And essentially the United Kingdom government has not enabled that view, that expression of an opinion of the people of Scotland to be put into democratic effect.

“So what I am saying in this election is that if people in Scotland want us to progress on the arguments about independence, if they want Scotland to be an independent country, then they’ve got to support the Scottish National Party as the only means of ensuring that can come about”.

Mr Swinney declined to say whether a failure to win a majority of Scottish seats in the general election would see him accept that the will of the Scottish people was not to have another independence referendum.

“I’m not going to pre-judge the outcome of the election,” he said.

Mr Swinney said the result of the 2021 Scottish election gave Holyrood the mandate for a referendum and Westminster should “remove the obstacles” to that.