John Swinney: I thought I understood first minister job until I became FM

John Swinney has said he thought he understood what the first minister job involved – until he became FM.

Swinney, who has been an MSP since 1999, has been a member of every SNP government since 2007 and served as deputy first minister to Nicola Sturgeon.

In a new interview, he has said those years of experience still left him surprised at what the FM job involves.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking podcast, he said: "I thought I understood what the job involved, and it was really quite a difference when I actually got in there, because you find a number of things.

"You find that decisions ultimately come to you, and things don't really move until you've said this is what is going to happen. And in a sense, that did surprise me a bit, because I thought in the past I was probably taking a lot more decisions along the way."

He went on: "There is a necessity to be constantly focused on where the government is going, what the government is trying to achieve, what you're trying to do on different issues and different questions, and that is a constant demand to make sure the government's agenda is moving forwards."

Swinney moved to the backbenches in 2023, leaving the government alongside Nicola Sturgeon, and ran for leadership when her successor Humza Yousaf stood down earlier this year.

He said the country's finances had become "much more challenging" in the interim period and, when asked about the prospect of an early, additional election if the Scottish Government's upcoming budget does not pass, Swinney said: "It depends on the actions of other political parties. We'll put forward a budget that will be sustainable. We'll engage in a dialogue because we don't have a parliamentary majority.

"But that puts as much emphasis on other political parties and what they're prepared to support, because I don't think the public in Scotland want to go to any extra election than they’re scheduled to have."

Warning of the consequences of a failed budget, he went on: "It's a message to everybody.

"There's no hiding place for any political party. If we don't have a budget in place on the 1st of April, hospitals can't get the budget, schools can't get the budgets, benefits can't be paid, all sorts of things like that. So all these things follow that will come from a budget that doesn't pass."

 The SNP leader also revealed that he does not know how his garage-owner father votes or where he stands on independence.

Swinney said: "He’s been absolutely steadfast throughout his life of basically saying to me 'I'm not telling you how I'm voting'.

"We talk about politics – he's fascinated by what I'm doing – but it's still a secret. And no matter how much probing I give him, he's just not for telling."