Scottish voters left ‘disenfranchised’ after postal delays, says John Swinney

Scotland’s first minister John Swinney has expressed his worry at the number of “disenfranchised” voters unable to take part in the election due to the late delivery of postal ballots.

Swinney, who at the start of the campaign voiced concerns about holding the election during the Scottish school summer holidays, said flaws in the system that generates postal votes were disproportionately affecting voters north of the border.

“Look at the situation we have with disenfranchised people. I am getting inundated with folk sending me emails,” the leader of the Scottish National party said in an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday.

“The delay in getting to Scotland is more acute than other parts of the UK as people have left on summer holidays,” Swinney added. Delays to postal votes have been reported in parts of the UK, raising concerns that some voters will not have enough time to return their ballots.

Of the 24 per cent of voters who vote by post, about 90 per cent had received their ballots, according to Swinney, citing official sources. But the remaining 10 per cent were only due to be delivered by June 27, by which time Scottish school terms had already finished.

A “volume” of these ballots had still not arrived, he said. Given the large number of marginal constituencies in play across Scotland, a relatively small number of votes could have an outsized impact on the make-up of the next government after the July 4 election.

With about 4mn Scottish voters, a portion of up to 100,000 could therefore be affected. In response to concerns, councils have been setting up emergency facilities to reprint voter packs in person.

But that will not help Scottish residents who have headed off on holiday. “There is no alternative option — if you are gone, you’re done,” he said.

Swinney, speaking on his bright yellow “battle” bus between Inverness and Nairn, declared the UK election “essentially over” with a Labour government assured on Friday.

Scotland, however, remained “closely contested”, he said.

Most recent polling has Labour ahead, peeling away dozens of constituencies from the SNP across the central belt, from Glasgow through to Edinburgh and Fife.

Swinney has said if the SNP can defy the polling and win a majority of seats this would provide a mandate for another independence referendum.

Along with disaffection with 14 years of Conservative-led government, the SNP’s 17-year record in power in Holyrood is being examined by frustrated voters. Scandals have also plagued the party, including embezzlement charges against Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive and husband of former leader Nicola Sturgeon.

Seeking to mobilise voters — including the roughly half of Scots who support independence — he has been zigzagging the country to press home his claim that Labour’s plans for taxation and spending bake in £18bn of cuts to public services.

“For Scotland, you can put in a layer of protection and challenge to make sure what a Labour government does benefits Scotland,” he said. “A Labour party that continues austerity is frankly going to continue the damage the Tories started.”

Swinney has been first minister for only eight weeks, six of which have been taken up by the election campaign, which he says has limited his ability to “shift wider policy questions”.

He has nonetheless put up a defence against widespread criticism of the SNP’s record in health and education, arguing the “real problem” is funding from Westminster. “We need a genuinely fundamental change in direction on public spending,” he said.

While the Scottish government had raised taxes on higher earners to channel additional resources into public services, Swinney said he would make a “careful judgment” before further increases as he was “really conscious of [the] behavioural impact of tax”.

Swinney endorsed the message of his deputy, Kate Forbes, who has directed the government to adopt the mantra of “less writing, more doing” to generate economic growth.

“This means getting on with it, to be honest, making more deals happen,” he said.