Achi news desk-
However, a leadership battle may be on the cards after member Graeme McCormick used the independence march in Glasgow to drum up support for his candidacy.
It is understood that Mr McCormick believes he is very likely to receive the 100 nominations from at least 20 branches of the SNP before the deadline on Monday.
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Mr McCormick has previously been critical of the SNP-led Scottish Government, using the party’s conference last year to criticize its independence strategy describing it as “flatulence in a trance” in a speech.
He also challenged the president of the party at the time Michael Russell for his role, losing by 79 votes to 599 in a delegate vote.
If he were to win the leadership race against Mr Swinney, he would not be able to be first minister as he is not elected to the Scottish Parliament, with Mr McCormick telling members he believed he should’ r roles be run by two different individuals.
But Mr Swinney, who is currently the only confirmed candidate, told the Sky News Sunday Morning program with Trevor Phillips that he felt an infighting would hamper the SNP’s ability to recover quickly from to a troubled time.
He said: “I think the SNP has had an opportunity to start rebuilding from the difficult times we’ve had, under my leadership, and frankly, I’d like to get on with that as quickly as I can do it, because every day we spend in an internal contest, the outcome of which I think we all probably know, we are postponing the possibility for the SNP to start rebuilding it.”
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Mr Swinney told the program his leadership bid had received “very, very comprehensive support”, including from former finance secretary Kate Forbes, who ruled herself out of the running earlier.
Should Mr McCormick receive the required nominations, a three-week leadership contest will be triggered, with polls opening on Monday May 13 and closing on May 27.
But if Mr Swinney runs unopposed, he will be the next leader of the SNP and is likely to become prime minister as early as Tuesday this week after a vote at Holyrood.
Mr Swinney, who previously led his party between 2000 and 2004, faced a leadership challenge from an activist in 2003 but ultimately won the contest with 83.9% of the vote.
READ MORE: John Swinney: Cabinet reshuffle and reset: What’s next
Speaking later on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, he said he would respect the “democratic process” if there was a contest but added: “I think it would be better if we got on with things, that we begins the work of rebuilding the SNP and its political strength.”
He added that he believed the “overwhelming majority” of party members “wanted to get on with it”.
When asked where the party’s “disunity” came from, he pointed to the difficult leadership contest in 2023, which saw Mr Yousaf, Ms Forbes and Ash Regan, condemning each other’s records and social views.
“I think we’ve just had a rough couple of years basically,” he added.
