JOHN Swinney pushed the SNP to come out in support of the Iraq war during his first tenure as leader, a former Scottish Cabinet secretary has claimed.
Alex Neil, who served as an SNP MSP from 1999 to 2021, claimed that the now-First Minister had pushed his party to back Tony Blair’s invasion of Iraq – which is widely regarded to have breached international law.
However, serving Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop disputed the claim. “I was there then and this just isn’t true - you really should leave this,” she said in comments on social media pointed to by the SNP.
”This is not true,” a spokesperson added.
Swinney led the SNP from 2000-2004, when he resigned after a series of disappointing election results. Alex Salmond won the contest to replace him – and Neil claimed that Salmond had also talked Swinney down from backing the Iraq war.
“Alex Salmond, as the SNP foreign affairs spokesperson, managed to force John not to announce support for Blair’s illegal war in Iraq just minutes before John was going to go public with it,” Neil wrote on social media.
He had been responding to an article penned by political commentator Robin McAlpine, which contained the same claim.
“The fact is that John Swinney is turning the SNP into something broadly unrecognisable in terms of its underpinning philosophy,” McAlpine wrote. “Please remember, he tried to do this the last time.
“I have three direct sources who were in the room when Swinney was last leader and tried to persuade the National Executive Committee of the party to support the Iraq war.”
Chris McEleny, the former Alba general secretary who is finishing Salmond’s political memoirs in his place, said that the late leader had told him the same.
“Correct,” McEleny responded to Neil.
“Alex told me circumstances of this as Iraq war was obviously something that would feature prominently in Alex’s political story.
“John was going to back war in fear of a backlash if he didn’t.
“Alex had to phone him to tell him it would ruin the SNP if he backed the war.”
The SNP's opposition to the Iraq war was seen as a clear dividing line between them and the Westminster parties, especially Blair’s Labour.
It became a defining issue that helped the SNP distinguish itself from the UK establishment, reinforcing the party’s broader argument that Scotland should have control over foreign policy.
Former first minister Humza Yousaf has gone on record as saying that he joined the SNP as a student due to Salmond speaking out against the Iraq war.
Swinney became First Minister after standing unopposed to run the SNP following Yousaf’s resignation in early 2024.
