When Scotland voted no in 2014, I breathed a quiet sigh of relief and thought: 'That's that.' In my wide-eyed, pre-politician days I hoped, and naively assumed, that the SNP government would accept the decisive referendum result and get back to the day job. Fat chance.
The reality is they have never respected the democratic will of the Scottish people. Immediately, the SNP began campaigning for a re-run – and have never let up since.
John Swinney, who has fantasised about breaking up the UK since he was a teenager, has now spotted an opportunity to secure another divisive referendum. The SNP leader says that if his party wins a majority on May 7 – which many polls are suggesting is possible – he will demand another vote on independence.
Swinney kicked off his election campaign by addressing Nationalist diehards at a rally in Edinburgh, and in the weeks that have followed he has made it abundantly clear that securing another referendum is (and always will be) his number one priority. Earlier this week, he said the first vote he will hold in parliament after the election will be to secure Holyrood's approval to demand one from the UK government.
He could have brought forward a vote on the cost-of-living crisis to bring down people's bills. He could have unveiled plans to tackle the permanent crisis in our NHS and the 8am rush for a GP appointment. Or he could have debated how to restore Scottish education's once world-leading reputation for excellence. However, these issues will always be sidelined by Swinney's independence fixation.
I believe that the threat of another referendum taking place is at its greatest since 2014. Faced with a weak and wobbly Labour government, Swinney is confident he can browbeat Sir Keir Starmer into submission. No one, including Anas Sarwar, can trust Starmer to say 'no'. What is certain is that if the SNP wins the election outright next Thursday, Scotland will be plunged into fresh constitutional chaos. The priorities of ordinary Scots – like the cost-of-living crisis and fixing the public services that are on their knees after two decades of SNP rule – would be ignored.
Swinney says he will team up with Plaid Cymru if they win the Welsh election on the same day as ours. And to the consternation of many reasonable Scots, he has also admitted that he would work with Sinn Fein. The prospect of such an axis of devolved nationalist governments should send a chill down the spine of every proud unionist. Not even the former political wing of the IRA is beyond the pale for Swinney's SNP. Mail readers' memories of the Troubles remain vivid. Like me, they will be appalled at the prospect of Swinney working with Sinn Fein to break up the United Kingdom.
I challenged Swinney about his unholy alliance during Tuesday's STV News leaders' debate. He had no qualms about admitting it. It seems that no party is too toxic for Swinney as long as they share the destructive streak of nationalism. But this nightmare scenario is not set in stone. If pro-UK voters across Scotland unite behind the Scottish Conservatives on their peach ballot paper, we can stop an SNP majority and their push for another divisive referendum. That is what we did in 2016 and 2021 when we thwarted Nicola Sturgeon's outright win she craved. We can do the same to Swinney's SNP in 2026 – but only if voters rally behind the Scottish Conservatives.
We are the one party that can be trusted to stand up to the nationalists and defend our place in the Union. Swinney is deadly serious about his intentions. Yet the other parties are either too weak, complacent or even ambivalent about the Union. Scottish Labour cannot be trusted on anything after saddling the country with the disastrous Starmer government. Their leader Anas Sarwar is in denial about the impending constitutional threat and is trying to wish it away. His motive? He is trying to woo disillusioned SNP voters. Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, whose party have voted through the last two tax-raising SNP budgets, is recklessly ignoring Swinney's independence warnings. He claims – to my utter astonishment – that he has not even given it a thought during this campaign.
What about Reform UK? Well they are simply untroubled and that is because they are a unionist party in name only. As well as fielding several pro-independence candidates, their Scottish leader Lord Offord has provided the SNP with a roadmap to another referendum. He has said he is appealing to 'rational nationalists', whatever that means. Swinney has spent months talking up Reform at every opportunity – because they are a gift to the SNP. Every vote for Reform increases the chances of Swinney staying in Bute House ... to preside over five more years of decline and decay.
So it falls to the Scottish Conservatives, once again, to be the steadfast against the SNP's bid to tear apart our great United Kingdom. This week, I am touring the so-called 'blue wall' of Scottish Conservative-held seats running along the border between Scotland and England. I have already been at the port at Cairnryan, which is a critical trade and tourism link between us and Northern Ireland. I also visited a hospitality business in Gretna Green who have been hammered by the SNP's disastrous business rates. This has put them at an even greater disadvantage to their counterparts just over the border.
On Thursday, I am visiting the Union Bridge, a physical and symbolic reminder of the bonds between our two nations. Many people in the south of Scotland, and others up and down our country, cherish being British as well as Scottish. We know and appreciate the financial, cultural and security benefits derived from being part of the UK. They are also heartily aggrieved at the state of Scotland after two decades of SNP rule. Whether it is the SNP's abject failure to upgrade lifeline roads like the A75 and A77, inadequate local NHS services, or crippling income taxes for hard-pressed workers, there is a palpable and justified sense of anger.
Under the SNP, people are sick and tired of paying more and getting less in return. Swinney should be easing the strain on households with a tax cut funded by reining in Scotland's out-of-control benefits bill. He should cut red tape and middle management in Scotland's NHS, so that we can recruit more doctors and nurses. Yet these desperately pressing issues will be ignored if the SNP win a majority next Thursday. The public's priorities will be swept aside as Swinney puts party before country and re-opens wounds that have never been allowed to heal. We cannot let that happen.
My message to pro-UK voters is clear and stark: don't allow Scotland to sleepwalk into fresh constitutional chaos. You have seven days to deny Swinney his majority and save our United Kingdom. Together, united, we can send him homeward to think again.
