Swinney keen to work with fellow nationalist devolved leaders in UK

SNP leader wants to ensure voices of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland ‘are heard loud and clear’ John Swinney has said he plans to work with the nationalist first ministers in Wales and Northern Ireland in a coordinated opposition to Labour’s policies on the cost of living and UK government spending. The Scottish National party leader said he had spoken to Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin first minister of Northern Ireland, on Friday night after she had called to congratulate him on his party’s “emphatic” victory in the Holyrood elections. Swinney, who will be sworn in as Scotland’s first minister next week, said he expected Plaid Cymru’s leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, to be appointed first minister of Wales after winning the Senedd elections for the first time on Thursday. He said he “looked forward to making sure our respective countries’ voices are heard loud and clear in the UK”. O’Neill, who has to work jointly with the Democratic Unionist party in Stormont, so has limits to her authority, had made clear her enthusiasm for all three nationalist-led governments working in concert, Swinney added. That alliance would take shape against a background of increased political conflict i