John Swinney yesterday launched ANOTHER bid to hold a second independence referendum - despite the SNP failing to win a majority and losing 400,000 votes in the Holyrood election.

His party lost six seats and ended up with 58 MSPs – seven short of the number required to achieve a majority - as Scots voted tactically to try and oust the nationalists.

Yet ‘tin-eared’ Mr Swinney yesterday claimed the SNP and the Greens, which have a combined total of 73 MSPs, had secured a ‘pro-independence mandate’.

He confirmed that he intends to press ahead with plans for a vote on the first sitting day of parliament after the appointment of a new government to demand the ‘section 30 order’ power from the UK Government to allow a Scottish independence referendum to take place.

Last night Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told the Mail: ‘John Swinney failed to achieve his own “mandate” for another independence referendum. He should now stop trying to break up the UK and focus on reducing sky-high taxes and fixing the public services that are in meltdown on his watch.

‘Swinney spent the entire Scottish election campaign insisting that an SNP majority would be the game-changer that Keir Starmer could not ignore. Yet, despite arrogantly predicting that his party would win outright, he fell short of his own target.

‘Scotland can’t afford another five years of constitutional wrangling. John Swinney must now accept that result, park his independence obsession and get on with the day job.

‘His refusal to do so is as depressing as it is predictable.’

After all the votes were counted, the SNP secured 58 seats, with Reform UK and Labour tied for second place on 17, the Greens 15, Conservatives 12 and Liberal Democrats 10.

It means the SNP will need to either run as a minority – and be propped up by other parties in a ‘confidence and supply’ arrangement which could see them forced to the left by the Greens – or strike a coalition agreement with a single party.

Mr Swinney yesterday said he planned to invite all parties for talks with the exception of Reform for talks starting next week, and also stepped up his plans to work with Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland and Plaid Cymru in Wales on his separation crusade, by claiming that ‘the Celtic fringe is very much about to become centre stage’.

During the election campaign, Mr Swinney had said that in the event of an SNP majority he would bring forward a vote in parliament on approving ‘the development of a section 30 order to give Scotland the power to hold an independence referendum’.

Asked yesterday if he would press ahead with this vote, Mr Swinney said: ‘I certainly intend to carry on with my plans, yes.’

At an event with his new MSP group in Edinburgh yesterday, Mr Swinney said: ‘There has now been a pro-independence majority for four elections in a row. This mandate has been ignored successive Westminster Prime Ministers, Labour and Tory, year after year after year.

‘I had hoped in this election we could break the logjam by securing the only thing that has previously actually secured a vote, which was an SNP majority. Although we’ve come very close to achieving that, that SNP majority has not been accomplished.

‘Now that does not change the underlying fact that, despite all the attempts to stop us, for the fourth election in a row there is a pro-independence mandate in the new Scottish Parliament. Indeed, there are now more pro-independence MSPs than at any time in the history of the Scottish Parliament.’

He claimed that Nigel Farage is ‘galloping towards Downing Street’ and claimed Holyrood needs to be ‘Farage-proofed’ by having the power to hold a referendum by 2029.

On the nationalist first ministers in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, he said: ‘What people in London like to refer to rather patronisingly as the Celtic fringe is very much about to take centre stage.’

He claimed that ‘the people of Scotland emphatically want to have a choice about their future’.

But analysis of the election results shows that a minority of 40.5 per cent voted for the pro-independence SNP or Greens on the constituency ballot, and 41.2 per cent on the regional list.

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: ‘John Swinney’s tin-eared determination to force another unwanted referendum on the people of Scotland is beyond a joke.

‘His teenage obsession with breaking up the UK has been roundly rejected but instead of accepting that reality yet again he is moving the goalposts.

‘It is dishonest, it is divisive and it confirms that this useless SNP Government will never change and will always prioritise separation over any form of good governance.

‘We are on the side of hard-working Scots who want to see Parliament focused on tackling the cost of living not plunging us into another round of constitutional chaos. John Swinney is living in LaLa Land. He is completely dishonest about support for a referendum and people don’t want it.’

He accused Mr Swinney of ‘brazenly peddling a massive lie’ by claiming that he has the support and mandate for another referendum, and added: ‘While it might be tempting to dismiss him as an independence obsessed crank, we know that he is deadly serious which is why we will continue to say ‘no’.’

Following all the final results, the SNP secured 38.2 per cent of the constituency vote in Thursday’s elections, followed by Labour on 19.2 per cent, Reform on 15.8 per cent, Conservative 11.8 per cent, Lib Dem 11.4 per cent and Greens 2.3 per cent.

On the regional list, the SNP won 27.2 per cent, with Reform on 16.6 per cent, Labour 16.0 per cent, Greens 14.0 per cent, Conservative 11.8 per cent, and Lib Dems 9.4 per cent.

The SNP vote share was down 9.5 percentage points on the constituency ballot, and was a total of 414,000 lower than 2021, and was down 13.2 percentage points on the regional list, where it was 468,000 lower than five years ago. However, overall turnout was also lower, at 53.2 per cent for the constituency vote this year compared to 63.5 per cent in 2021.

At yesterday’s event, Mr Swinney told journalists that he still believed it is realistic that an independence referendum could be held in 2028.

He said he had increased the SNP vote ‘by about 25 per cent’ in the two years since he has been leader, and that the pro-independence majority ‘should be respected by the UK Government’.

Alastair Cameron, chairman of the Scotland in Union campaign group, said: ‘John Swinney has predictably used his first day after the election result to push his nationalist agenda.

‘But Scots don’t agree, and polling repeatedly shows there are many other areas they regard as far more important.

‘However Mr Swinney tries to spin the election results, it would be inexcusable to plunge us into yet more constitutional chaos.

‘If the SNP is to govern for everyone for the next five years, it must park talk of the constitution and instead – for the first time in two decades – prioritise health, education and the economy.'