Keith Brown’s speech to SNP Conference 2025

I’m delighted to once again stand here today as your Depute Leader for the seventh year now.

Let me be clear from the outset: we gather here this weekend not just to talk about change, but as we saw yesterday in that fantastic debate and resolution, we gather here to make change happen.

In just 7 months’ time, Scotland will go to the polls to elect the next Scottish Parliament.

And friends, it is beyond clear that our path to independence and the fresh start Scotland needs runs through May 2026. It is the SNP – and only the SNP – that has the vision, the courage and the plan to lead us there.

Winning next year’s election with a clear SNP majority will be the indisputable mandate for an independence referendum that the people of Scotland need. And I am pleased we came together yesterday to make that point very clear.

Because, Conference, that is how we gave people in Scotland a choice in 2014 and we will do that again.

The next chapter of Scotland’s story must be written by the people of Scotland, and not imposed on us by Westminster politicians.

Not by Keir Starmer. Not by the Tories. And certainly not by a charlatan like Nigel Farage.

The people of Scotland will be the ones to decide their future.

And the only way we win and make that majority happen is through the hard work of every single one of you. Our members and activists have always been the heart and soul of this party, and I want to take this opportunity to thank you for everything that you continue to do.

From Inverness to Irvine, from Shetland to Selkirk – you are the reason the SNP continues to lead Scotland forward. You are the faces at the doors, the people in our communities, and the voices that will win us our independence.

And, conference, we do it because we know what we are doing it for.

Every door chapped, every person spoken to, helps us get one step closer to a future where we can build a better, independent nation. A nation that reflects Scotland’s values – values of fairness, compassion, and ambition.

And it is those values which bring me on to what I want to say next. Everyone will be aware this year has been a difficult year for many reasons, for many of us, including for the family of Christina Mckelvie, for the movement and for her many friends here in this hall.

Conference, friends, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you.

I want to thank you for the love, kindness and friendship you have all shown me and Christina’s family – Lewis, Jack, Leo and Maeve.

Christina embodied everything that the SNP stands for – belief in ourselves and what we can achieve, compassion for others, especially those who need it most, and determination to not quit until the job is done.

Conference, I’d now like to share with you a short video of Christina.

Just to point out a couple of things that Christina said there. I always find it hard to listen to what Christina had to say – I can’t get over how gorgeous she was the whole time.

But there was four things in particular Christina talked about.

First of all she talked about women, and also why she joined the SNP, the work in Dungavel, and also the work for independence.

First of all, on why she joined the SNP, and this is really important for us to be more aware of than we are – people outside of the party see this as well. When the SNP talks it always keeps Scotland central to what it says. We’re the only party that, even if you don’t support us, people know we’ll always put Scotland first.

It’s not a cliche, it’s a very important point of the attraction of the SNP to people in Scotland and Christina was very aware of that.

She also mentioned the work she did at Dungavel, going to protests long before she was elected to the parliament – that video was around 2009. Christina went along there, risked arrest, on many occasions. She spoke with compassion in the parliament on behalf of those children who were kept in Dungavel.

And that’s so important to remember just now when we’re in this environment, this week in the Scottish Parliament, we had an absolutely horrendous motion from the Conservatives, seeking to outdo Reform, which demonised asylum seekers. So to see what could be done before by people like Christina, contrast that with what’s happening now is very important.

And the fourth point she made is why we do what John Swinney and his government, why they do what they do, and that’s to demonstrate to people that there is a better alternative to what we have under the UK.

But the other point that people made was about women.

Many people have said that we need more Christinas in our parliament. I agree. It was something that she herself was hellbent on making sure of.

She encouraged, supported, and inspired many women to get involved in politics.

Last weekend I went to the Highland Regional Conference, and as I was leaving an older woman came up to me and said she had wanted to stand for the council but doubted whether she had the ability or whether she was worthy enough to be a councillor, and Christina took her aside, gave her a hug – as she always did – and gave her reassurance to say she was equally valid, equally able, equally able to be a councillor as anybody else. And she was in tears telling me this. And I get that, and I’m sure Jack gets that every day of the week. People who met Christina, and felt the benefit of her support, in particular women.

And, given the current toxic climate we are seeing just now, I think we can all agree support for women getting involved in politics has never been more important.

That’s why, I’m delighted to say today that the SNP will launch a new initiative called Lead the Change: The Christina McKelvie Women In Politics Scheme.

This will work alongside some of the fantastic women in our party – like Shirley-Anne Sommerville, Jenny Gilruth, Nicola Sturgeon, Fiona Hyslop, Mairi McAllan and senior councillors like Ellen Forson and Shona Morrison.

We have to realise how difficult it’s going to be to make sure we have women confident enough to stand in the hundreds of seats we have to face in 2027. And it’s a tough world, politics, but it’s an especially tough world for women.

This initiative will seek to empower, educate, and equip women to step confidently into politics through structured mentorship, education, and skills development.

With politics becoming increasingly toxic, especially towards women, and the rise of the far right leading to women’s rights coming under threat…and if you don’t think that’s true, they started with trans people, they’ll go through the LGBT community and they’ll go through to women as well. That’s where they intend to go. Culture wars is all they have.

For that reason we all must do more. And if we don’t, we are all going to lose out.

So, I am delighted the party can honour Christina’s life with something so important and look forward to sharing more details with you soon.

One final thing I’ll say is that Jack and I, and other people in this hall, are working on an event next year. This is a shameless plug. It’s happening on the 4th of April, it’s going to be called Wear It Pink For Christina. You may know Christina hosted the Wear It Pink event in the Scottish Parliament for 16 years in support of breast cancer, and we intend to have a ball next year which will be about Christina’s life, and supporting charities like Breast Cancer Now, the LGBT communities, the traveller community, all the causes Christina was involved in campaigning for. The tickets are not yet on sale but we have some fantastic people. We’ve got Karen Dunbar as the DJ, for example. So if you want a ticket, Jack is here, Ellen Forson is here. Let them know because the tickets, and there are hundreds of them, are going very fast.

Friends, no one could have been prouder of what we have achieved with the limited powers of devolution than Christina.

Each and every day of having the privilege to govern Scotland, the SNP has reflected Scotland’s values and delivered in the best interests for the people who live here.

But it is no secret that a significant amount of our time and resources is spent shielding people from the worst impacts of decisions made at Westminster.

We are consistently left having to step in where the UK Government falls short.

Whether it’s introducing a winter payment for pensioners after Keir Starmer’s Labour government cruelly stripped it away…

Or helping households with the cost of living by keeping bills lower than the rest of the UK, after Labour chose to continue to make families pay the price of austerity and Brexit…

Or introducing the Scottish Child Payment to help lift tens of thousands of children out of poverty – that will change those children’s lives forever – whilst Westminster continues to push more children into poverty through cuts and their refusal to get rid of the hated Two Child Cap…

Conference, I think it’s important to take a moment to highlight that decision in particular.

The Two Child Cap should have been removed as soon as Starmer got the keys to number ten. There is no excuse for not scrapping it immediately. It is the single biggest action that would lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty and the fact Labour has not scrapped it is utterly outrageous.

We’ll all have seen rumours that Labour may do it soon…for some children…possibly…maybe…who really knows?

That is NOT good enough.

The Two Child Cap needs to be scrapped and it needs to be scrapped completely.

The good news is that is exactly what the SNP is stepping in to do.

Because we will always do what we can to improve the lives of people across Scotland.

Whether that’s shielding households from damaging Westminster decisions, or using the existing powers of devolution to improve the lives of people across the country…

Friends, let me tell you something that I think is often forgotten or overlooked – we have a record in government to be immensely proud of, and don’t let any of the media say otherwise.

What’s the evidence for that statement?

We’ve provided free prescriptions to every person in the country from the year we took office.

We provide free university tuition fees.

We provide free bus travel for 2 million Scots.

We have the best performing A&Es in the UK.

We have free parking at hospitals across the country.

GP numbers are increasing.

We’ve expanded free school lunches.

We have taken Scotrail into public ownership.

We’ve scrapped peak rail fares.

We’ve delivered transformative infrastructure projects like the Borders Railway – the biggest new railway in the UK for over 100 years. The Queensferry Crossing, which won awards for its design, was delivered for £400m below budget – when’s the last time you heard a UK Government infrastructure project come in below budget?

Just incidentally, I introduced that into the parliament and was the relevant minister right the way through it, but the fact it was £400m below budget was down to John Swinney. He signed the contract at the start, and that’s what guaranteed those savings. He did that for so many of the infrastructure projects.

The Aberdeen Western peripheral route. All the other parties talked about it, we delivered it.

And we are the only part of the country where child poverty is decreasing because of the actions we are taking in government.

Friends, if this is what we can achieve with the limited powers of devolution, just imagine what we could do with the full powers of independence.

And there’s never been a more important time for us to confront the political landscape we face.

The Tories are in meltdown. You should see the desperation of the Tories in the Scottish Parliament. They’ve lost 3 MSPs over the course of the summer to different parties.

Labour has nothing to offer. You’ve never seen a more acquiescent, subdued group, and they’re the ones that are in government at Westminster.

And Nigel Farage is standing in the wings, ready to drag our politics even further to the right and drive our country off a cliff.

Starmer has dropped the many promises he made to voters just over a year ago, and left people feeling disappointed and disenfranchised.

He’s scrapped plans for radical reform, backed Brexit, and just like the Tories, he thinks he can refuse to let Scotland have the right to decide our future.

Well, not on our watch.

And, conference, let me ask you this:

If Labour and the Tories both want to balance the books on the backs of the vulnerable…

If they both support Brexit…

If they both oppose even the possibility of Scotland having a say over its future…

Then exactly what is the difference between Labour and the Tories?

We’ve gone from two different parties, to two different colours of the same broken system.

And both of them are laser-focused on pandering to Nigel Farage.

I am very proud of the stance John Swinney has taken in standing up to Nigel Farage and the rise of the far right.

Farage is a man who is manipulating the failure of successive Westminster governments and his own political agenda, to spread a vision of division, hate, and regression.

A man who wants to privatise the NHS.

Who wants to double down on Brexit and climate denial.

And worst of all, he wants to normalise fear – fear of immigrants, fear of difference, fear of change.

What’s equally reprehensible is Keir Starmer talking about a land of strangers.

Well, friends, let me say this loud and clear: This is not the future Scotland wants. It is not the future Scotland will accept. It’s not the future Christina McKelvie accepted back in 2007.

The SNP stands firmly against the politics of hate.

We are a party that stands for hope, progress, and internationalism.

We are a party that will always stand behind those that have most to fear from people like Nigel Farage.

And we know it doesn’t have to be like this. We know Scotland has a different choice.

Because Scotland has the SNP.

And we’re not just promising to manage Westminster’s decline, we’re promising to leave it behind. We’re offering something better.

And we will never, ever, back down or apologise for believing that the people who live in Scotland, wherever they came from, are best placed to decide the future of Scotland.

A future where we can build a fairer, more equal, prosperous Scotland. A country where workers are treated with dignity and paid fairly – and I hope that many delegates here today were here yesterday to hear Roz Foyer talk about the work of the Scottish Government. Since it came in in 2007 on the side of workers. And can I just say a wee shout out for Kate Forbes and the work she’s done for Alexander Dennis, to save those jobs there?

Westminster offered plenty, as they did for Grangemouth, and then did nothing – so it was down to the Scottish Government to save those jobs.

We want to have a land where communities have the power to shape their future.

Where public services are owned by the public, not profiteers.

And our children grow up knowing their future is not limited by the decisions of a government that they didn’t elect.

With independence, we can build an economy that works for the people of Scotland. Where we can replace a cruel asylum system and a toxic immigration system, with one rooted in compassion. Where we guarantee human rights, not talking about leaving the ECHR, where we protect the environment, and create opportunity for everyone.

That is the future the SNP offers. And that is a future we must fight for.

That is why winning next year is not just important – it is essential.

I know we can all feel tired.

Tired after years of broken promises from Westminster.

Tired after the setbacks.

And tired of seeing Scotland’s voice ignored.

But I say this to you: the SNP has never and will never give up the fight for Scotland’s freedom.

We do not back down and we don’t settle for less than Scotland deserves.

We have to remain focused on changing the course of our country’s history. And we have the people, the passion, the purpose, and we have the leader to finish the job.

So, let us leave conference this weekend, go into every community in Scotland, and make the case for independence – not just with flags or slogans, but with facts, with hope, and with respect.

Let’s listen to people across the country and ask them to join us.

And in May 2026, let’s deliver a resounding majority for the SNP.

Because when we win, the people of Scotland will have spoken. And when we win, the choice will be Scotland’s to make.

Conference, let’s win in 2026, let’s build the best campaign yet, let’s build the movement, and let’s build a nation.

Because Scotland’s future is not written in Westminster.

It’s not dictated by Nigel Farage or Keir Starmer.

It is written by the people of Scotland.

Thank you.