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SNP ‘working harder than ever’ to win Shetland in May’s Holyrood election, Swinney says
Scottish First Minister John Swinney during his visit to mental health charity The Lighthouse for Perth, in Perthshire, for an announcement on funding to enhance emergency mental health support services, February 18, 2026
JOHN SWINNEY declared today that the SNP is “working harder than ever” to win Shetland in May’s Holyrood election.
Shetland is considered a Lib Dem stronghold but in recent elections the SNP has gained ground, from 4,895 votes behind in 2016, to just 806 votes in 2021, prompting Mr Swinney to claim on his visit to the archipelago that “momentum is firmly with the SNP.”
He said: “Hoarding of power in Whitehall is felt nowhere more acutely than in Shetland.
“The SNP is working ever harder to win here – the opportunity for Shetland in May is clear and it’s there to be grasped with both hands.”
Shetland Islands council leader and Lib Dem candidate Emma Macdonald, hit back: “While John Swinney is in Shetland, he should announce that our tunnels will be funded, that our share of the ScotWind money that his party snatched is going to be returned and that his government will be making energy developers pay to cut bills for islanders.
“He can make all the speeches he likes. People care about action and that’s where his party has consistently let us down.”
