JOHN Swinney has said the SNP’s mandate for independence negotiations would not be invalidated if his party loses seats in the General Election.

A pro-independence majority supporting indyref2 was returned at the last Holyrood election in 2021.

Since then, the SNP’s strategy – agreed at last year’s conference – states that winning a majority of Scottish seats at Westminster would trigger talks with the UK government to give “democratic effect” to independence.