SNP Annual Conference 2024 is being held at EICC, Edinburgh

Transcript

00:00SNP activists and party members will gather in Edinburgh this weekend for the party's

00:04annual conference under a heavy cloud. The SNP is still reeling from a disastrous

00:08general election result that saw it win just nine MPs, down from 48 in 2019.

00:14The result has forced John Swinney, the First Minister and SNP leader, to reassess his party's

00:19strategy on independence. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government is preparing

00:23to announce painful public spending cuts in the coming days as it grapples with a financial

00:28headache. Mr Swinney will face a tough job when it

00:31comes to presenting his party with a compelling vision of the future during his main speech

00:36on Sunday afternoon. But with the next Holyrood election now less

00:39than two years away, there is no time to waste. The SNP must regroup and forge a path forward

00:45if it wants to take on a resurgent Scottish Labour Party, whose leader, Anna Sarwar, fancies

00:50himself as the next First Minister of Scotland. This weekend marks a crucial moment for a

00:55party bruised and battered after an extremely difficult period which has seen Nicola Sturgeon's

01:00resignation, an ongoing police investigation into its funding and finances, and a short-lived

01:05spell under the leadership of Humza Yousaf. John Swinney is seen as a safe pair of hands,

01:11but is he the man to turn things around for his struggling party? We'll soon find out.

01:15I'm Alistair Grant, the Scotsman's political editor, and we'll be there throughout this

01:18weekend to report on what should be a fascinating conference.

01:22Stay tuned to the Scotsman's website for all the latest news, analysis and comment.