Scotland’s deputy first minister and former education secretary John Swinney has revealed that he was “incredibly close to resigning” over the 2020 exams fiasco in the midst of the Covid pandemic.
Mr Swinney also said that had tried to leave the Scottish government in 2016 and 2021, but that first minister Nicola Sturgeon “wouldn’t countenance” his resignation.
He and the outgoing first minister were speaking to the BBC’s Nicola Sturgeon podcast.
Ms Sturgeon spoke of the pair’s close friendship, saying: “The most important person in my adult life, outside my husband and family, is actually John Swinney.”
Mr Swinney was education secretary at the start of the pandemic, when national exams were cancelled. An alternative grading system was based on teachers’ judgements of students’ grades, which were then moderated by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).
But this resulted in 124,564 students having their results lowered from the teacher estimates. Following a campaign by students and pressure from political opponents, Mr Swinney apologised and, in a dramatic U-turn, told the SQA to revert downgraded results to match teachers’ estimates.
John Swinney admits ‘mistake’ over grade system
Mr Swinney said in the new podcast: “I came incredibly close to resigning. Very, very close. Because I felt I had made a mistake. What just about persuaded me to do it was the sense that emerged that Covid had turned everything upside down but we were trying to say ‘business as usual’ on certification.
“I remember reading a comment which said: ‘Surely the kids of Scotland could have been given a break because everything else has been turned upside down.’
“I read that comment and thought, ‘That’s your mistake, mate, and you should own it.’”
He later survived a vote of no confidence at Holyrood over the handling of the alternative grading system used in 2020.
Mr Swinney also said he offered to stand down from the Cabinet after the Scottish Parliament elections in 2016 and 2021, but that Ms Sturgeon “basically wouldn’t countenance me leaving government”.
Before Christmas 2022, Mr Swinney said, he told Ms Sturgeon of his intention to leave government once his role of acting finance secretary ended when Kate Forbes returned from maternity leave.
He said that on this occasion Ms Sturgeon did not try to stop him. Mr Swinney has since confirmed that he is leaving government but will remain as a backbench MSP.
The first minister, who announced her resignation last month, admitted that she may have already been thinking about her own future when Mr Swinney told her this.
Ms Sturgeon said: “If you said to me then that, come the middle of February you are going to be announcing your resignation, I would have said to you, ‘Don’t be ridiculous - no I won’t be.’
“But looking back on it, I think subconsciously I was already grappling with that, and maybe in my response to John there was a sense of what deep down inside maybe I knew what was coming for me as well.”
