John Swinney sworn in as First Minister

John Swinney was officially sworn in at the Court of Session on Wednesday, where he took the Official Oath in front of the Lord President of the Court of Session and other senior judges. 

Mr Swinney was accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth Quigley and their teenage son, Matthew.

The Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain was also present at the official ceremony in the court along with Murray Foote, Chief Executive of the SNP.

Afterwards Mr Swinney spoke briefly to the media outside the Court of Session. He will appoint his cabinet later today.

Mr Swinney confirmed that former Finance Secretary, Kate Forbes, will be included in that number, saying “I said in my leadership proposals just last Thursday that I wanted Kate Forbes to have have a significant role to play within my team and I am a man of my word.”

Asked if his government will support the Greens who have demanded this morning that the government abolishes peak rail fares for good he said that everything needs to be paid for and he will have to look at it carefully.

The First Minister said: “The peak rail fares pilot has been a very, very good measure. It’s been very effective. We obviously have to look at the resources that would be involved in supporting that on a permanent basis. But that’s essentially the core of the dialogue we’ve got to have with other political parties to advance our agenda within parliament.

“And we’re going to have to work collaboratively, a minority government is going to have to work with others to pursue its agenda within parliament. And I am very pleased that the groundwork that I’ve laid out in the course of the last few days, has had such a positive reaction within Scotland because people want that Parliament to come together to address the pressing issues that face people in our country.”