John Swinney (born 13 April 1964) was the SNP MP for Tayside North from 1 May 1997 to 7 June 2001 (succeeding Bill Walker and preceding Pete Wishart) and the Scottish Parliament MP for Perthshire North from 6 May 1999. He also served as Leader of the SNP from 26 September 2000 to 3 September 2004, interrupting Alex Salmond's two terms.
Biography[]
John Swinney was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1964, and he joined the Scottish National Party's youth wing at the age of 15. He became the SNP national secretary in 1986 at the age of 22, and he was elected to the House of Commons in 1997 as the SNP MP for Tayside North. He served until 2001; in 1999, he had been elected to the Scottish Parliament, and he continued his devolved parliament service for decades. Swinney served as SNP leader from 2000 to 2004, when the fundamentalist wing of SNP ousted him due to the party's failure at the European Parliament elections.