Scotland’s economy, health service and education system are matters foremost in the First Minister’s mind.
But sometimes they jostle for attention with hockey and green soup.
The former is son Matthew’s sporting pursuit and the latter the vegetable concoction he batch cooks for wife Elizabeth Quigley.
John Swinney has what he describes as a constant juggling act to lead the country and a family life.
While his government is challenged in the Scottish Parliament, there are times his mind leaps to matters of the home.
Did he remember to leave soup out for Elizabeth? Does Matthew, 13, have a lift for hockey?
“I frequently think ‘oh no, I forgot to take that cup [of soup] out of the freezer!'” he laughs.
Elizabeth jokes: “It’s very high on the list of priorities for the First Minister! Making soup and making sure hockey competitions can be attended.”
“We’re just juggling like every other family,” explains John.
So what’s it like being First Minister and Dad?
Daily life is “frenetic”, says the SNP leader. Or as Elizabeth puts it “surreal and a whirlwind”.
How the Swinneys became the ‘first family’
John, 60, BBC reporter Elizabeth, 52, and Matthew had settled into a more relaxed pace before leadership suddenly beckoned with Humza Yousaf’s resignation in May.
In the year before, the former deputy first minister and education secretary was simply MSP for Perthshire North.
So the impact on family life was foremost in his mind as speculation mounted over whether he would throw his hat in the ring.
He says: “All of this has been an incredible surprise to us, it wasn’t part of the plan
“I had stood down as a minister in March 2023 and expected that was the end of my serious senior political life.
“We were taking life slightly more gently.”
“Differently is the best description,” interjects Elizabeth.
The normal Sunday before their world changed
On the Sunday before Yousaf’s resignation, the family had a very normal weekend.
Around the breakfast table at their home near Blairgowrie, Perthshire, they chatted about a speech John was to make the next day in London.
“Elizabeth was saying to me ‘the next couple of days is really what you should be doing’,” he said.
“A leisurely train journey to London and a speech reflecting on 25 years of devolution – who better to talk about that than someone who has been there the whole time.”
John later planned evening meals for the week ahead and cooked some of his green soup.
“In the next 24 hours our world changed very dramatically,” he says.
News Yousaf was to resign broke early on the Monday morning and talk quickly turned to who would take his place.
Consulting his family
“I’m on the TV on Monday lunchtime saying I’m going to have to consider this and speak to my family,” says John.
Elizabeth says: “I’m sitting watching the television thinking ‘yes, you are going to have to discuss this with your family!'”
It was midnight before John returned home, expecting Elizabeth to be asleep.
“I got into bed and this voice says ‘well?’,” he recalls.
It wasn’t only Elizabeth he had to consult.
Matthew’s life would also change. And he had one pressing question.
Would he still get to play hockey?
“We said ‘absolutely, yes, hockey training, tennis, cricket, that’s no problem’,” says Elizabeth. “But in my head I was thinking, ‘oh…'”
Matthew’s next worry was about a family trip to the island of Tiree.
“He wanted to know if we were still going on holiday,” says John.
“We holiday in Tiree every summer and he’s got buddies there. He’s got activities he gets involved in, sports, surfing, a music festival.”
The holiday did go ahead. Although it was delayed by the small matter of a general election called early in his leadership.
John threw himself into campaigning before Labour’s victory made Sir Keir Starmer the UK’s Prime Minister in July.
“We had a week booked, which was the week of the general election and so that was chucked completely,” says John.
“Then I was conscious of the fact a new PM would be coming to see me so I thought we’d better delay going.
“He came on the Sunday so we got away on the Tuesday and we got a week and a bit.”
Matthew now takes having his dad as the First Minister in his stride.
The Swinney home’s ‘part-time resident’
He teases him as the Swinney household’s ‘part-time resident’.
And when his father is absent he steps in to do some of the jobs he would do.
Elizabeth has multiple sclerosis which affects her dexterity and mobility. She is reliant on crutches to walk and no longer drives.
“We rely on him [Matthew] a lot,” says John. “Things I would normally do he does it now.
“He’ll carry dishes, he’ll cook food. He’s providing more support in the house than other 13-year-olds would.”
Thanks to the support of fellow sports club parents, getting to hockey, tennis and cricket sessions is not an issue.
“They stepped in seamlessly because their kids are going to the same things Matthew is, which has been so helpful,” Elizabeth says.
‘There’s no moment I can’t be reached’
His school, St John’s Academy, has been equally supportive to the family, she said.
While his days have become “much longer”, John, who also has two grown-up children, Judith and Stuart, reserves what time he can for Elizabeth and Matthew.
“I’m always at the end of a phone. There’s literally no moment where I can’t be reached,” says John.
“So I take the view I can make time to go to things with Matthew and Elizabeth. But if I need to be reached I need to be reached.
“Yesterday [a Sunday], for example, Matthew was playing hockey in Dundee and I had no formal commitments.
“I’d had a very demanding week and a whole day of it on Saturday so I just decided I was going there and that’s what we did. We watched his hockey and it was great.
“Relatively simple days like that don’t happen very often!”
John Swinney’s favourite family haunts
When they do get family time, the Swinneys like to spend it outdoors at places like The Hermitage, at Dunkeld.
And they have several favourite café haunts locally.
Sometimes Elizabeth and Matthew stay with John at his official residence in Edinburgh, Bute House.
“It allows me to do the things I need to do but I also I can be out and about in Edinburgh with them in a more leisurely space,” he says.
Being the child of the First Minister creates some more formal occasions for Matthew.
Not every 13-year-old would relish attending the SNP annual conference.
But luckily Matthew is interested in politics and “loves it”.
“When we were preparing for my speech to conference,” John says, “he was there, seeing the rehearsals going on and giving his opinions on what his father was proposing to say.
“He gives me a lot of advice. He’s forever telling me things he’s spotted on social media.”
When John was sworn in as First Minister at the Court of Session, Elizabeth and Matthew were by his side.
“He’s probably been a bit surprised about how close he’s been able to be to me as these things have happened, and I’m very keen that he is.
“I want him to understand what’s going on and what I’m getting up to.
“But there are limits!”
What is John’s green soup?
Back to the green soup.
During our chat in the family home, this soup becomes almost a metaphor for John’s dedication to family life.
Sunday evenings see him chopping and boiling a medley of vegetables.
“Elizabeth is really careful about her diet,” he explains. “What she eats can have a big affect on MS.
“I got advice from a clinician about making sure she eats a lot of green vegetables.
“I make a soup every weekend, a big pot of what we euphemistically call green soup.
“It’s literally all the deep greens I can get; broccoli, kale, spinach, spring cabbage, you name it.
Being sure they could manage as a family
“I make this and freeze it for Elizabeth.
“It gives me peace of mind she’s getting that every single day.”
He’ll text Elizabeth from parliament if he’s forgotten to take it out of the freezer. No matter what weighty issues he’s dealing with, there’s still time to think of his family.
John says he couldn’t have become First Minister without being satisfied they could manage as a family.
“I had to take my time to be sure,” he says. “Because immediately I wasn’t sure we could manage.
“I was doing lots of things. We had to adapt.
“So I have to be organised about the soup making!”
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