MSPs at Holyrood backed the Scottish government's call for Downing Street to agree to one second independence referendum, handing John Swinney a fresh vote in the Scottish Parliament and a new line for his talks with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The motion passed with the backing of SNP and Green MSPs and said this month's Holyrood election result gave a clear mandate for decisions about Scotland's future to be taken in Scotland. It also said that mandate must be respected. Swinney is expected to raise the issue during upcoming talks with Starmer.
The vote was not close to consensus. Labour, Reform, Conservative and Liberal Democrat MSPs opposed the motion, leaving the government relying on its pro-independence allies to carry the day. The text called on the UK government to grant a Section 30 order, the legal transfer of powers that would allow SNP ministers to hold a referendum. Without that move from London, another vote cannot take place.
For Swinney, the motion was a political statement as much as a procedural one. He has argued that Scotland needs a fresh start after years of what he has described as political chaos and economic stagnation, and says independence would give the country greater security and prosperity. The motion linked that argument to government commitments on child poverty, the NHS, public services, economic growth, the cost of living and climate targets.
But the debate also reopened an older wound inside the SNP. Opposition parliamentarians used the session to press concerns about the criminality of former party chief executive Peter Murrell, who admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the party after a police investigation into money raised for a referendum campaign. That admission continues to hang over the party as it asks voters and ministers to trust it with another constitutional battle.
Labour ministers have repeatedly said they would refuse to transfer the powers needed for a referendum, and that position leaves the path to another vote blocked unless the UK government changes course. Anas Sarwar accused Swinney of an obsession with independence and urged him to focus on a fresh start. Russell Findlay went further, calling on the SNP to drop the damaging independence obsession and questioning whether the party reckons the SNP can be trusted to take full control of an independent Scotland and the nation's finances.
The numbers in Holyrood made the political lines plain. The SNP and Greens had enough support to pass the motion, but not enough to change the constitutional reality in Westminster. That means Swinney can take the argument to Starmer with a parliamentary mandate behind him, but he still faces the same answer from Labour ministers unless London is willing to hand over the powers Holyrood needs.
For now, the vote gives Swinney a platform and his opponents a target. The first minister can tell voters he has the backing of the Scottish Parliament; Labour can say the case for another referendum has been rejected in practice by the UK government before it even reaches the starting line. The next test will come in the talks with Starmer, where the question is no longer whether Holyrood wants another referendum, but whether Westminster will allow one at all.
