John Swinney

Birth Name: John Ramsay Swinney

Place of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland

Date of Birth: 13 April, 1964

Ethnicity: Scottish

John Swinney is a Scottish politician. He has been First Minister of Scotland, since 8 May, 2024, and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), since 6 May, 2024, and, previously, from 26 September, 2000 to 3 September, 2004. He has also been a National Secretary of the SNP, from 1986 to 1992, a Member of Parliament for Tayside North, from 1 May, 1997 to 14 May, 2001, a Member of the Scottish Parliament for North Tayside/Perthshire North, since 6 May, 1999, Deputy First Minister of Scotland, from 21 November, 2014 to 28 March, 2023, and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy, from 17 May, 2007 to 18 May, 2016, and again, from 16 July, 2022 to 28 March, 2023, among other duties.

He is the son of Agnes Weir (Hunter) and Kenneth Swinney, a garage manager. His maternal uncle, Tom Hunter (Thomas Peck Hunter), received the Victoria Cross for gallantry in the face of the enemy; for offering himself as a target to save his troop in Lake Comacchio, Italy in April 1945, dying at the age of twenty-one.

John is married to BBC Scotland News reporter Elizabeth Quigley. He has two children with his former wife Lorna King; and a son with Elizabeth. He is a member of the Church of Scotland.

John’s paternal grandfather was named William Swinney.

John’s paternal grandmother was named Mary Jane Cumming.

John’s maternal grandfather was Isaac Ramsay Hunter (the son of Isaac Ramsay Hunter and Euphemia Breck). John’s grandfather Isaac was born in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, and was a soldier and civil servant. John’s great-grandfather Isaac was the son of John Hunter and Janet Ramsay. Euphemia was the daughter of James Breck and Jane Foote.

John’s maternal grandmother was Mary Campbell Wingate (the daughter of Alexander Campbell Wingate and Agnes Weir). Mary was born in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Alexander was the son of Thomas Wingate and Sarah/Mary Campbell. Agnes was the daughter of John Weir and Helen/May Balderston Tulloch.