MSPs sworn in at Holyrood for new Scottish Parliament term

The leaders of Scotland’s main political parties have all been formally sworn in as MSPs following the Holyrood election.

As the leader of the largest party, the SNP’s John Swinney was the first of the 129 MSPs to take the oath.

He took the opportunity to declare his “primary loyalty” to the “people of Scotland.

And while the SNP’s tally of MSPs may be down from 64 to 58, Swinney is still expected to be formally re-elected as Scotland’s first minister in a vote at Holyrood next week.

A week after the Scottish Parliament elections, Swinney and all other MSPs who were voted in lined up for the oath of office, pledging their “true allegiance” to King Charles and his successors.

Swinney, however, said: “Before I take my oath, let me pledge that the primary loyalty of the Scottish National Party is to the people of Scotland, in line with the constitutional principle of the sovereignty of the people.”

Next to take the oath was Reform UK’s Scottish leader Malcolm Offord – whose party is the joint second largest in the chamber.

Reform UK Scotland leader Malcolm Offord took his oath in Holyrood’s chamber PA Media

With both Reform and Scottish Labour having 17 MSPs, alphabetical order was used to determine which of the two leaders should go next.

Lord Offord took his oath, followed by Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar.

However, ahead of the ceremony, campaigners at Stand Up To Racism Scotland staged a small demo outside Holyrood, branding Reform as being “racist through and through”.

While the Reform MSPs had already entered the Parliament building before the protesters arrived, Scottish Green co-leaders Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer showed their support as they walked into the building.

The Green co-leaders took their oaths after the party secured its best-ever Holyrood result in the election, with Greer declaring their “ultimate loyalty” is “not to King or Crown, but to the people of Scotland”.

Similarly, Mackay said: “My oath is to the people of Scotland, who are sovereign.”

The Scottish Green co-leaders were then followed by Scottish Conservative leader, Russell Findlay, and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton.

As well as taking oaths in English, a number of MSPs used additional languages when taking their oath, with the SNP’s Karen Adam using British Sign Language – which she learned as a child to help her communicate with her deaf father.

New Green MSP Holly Bruce, who was elected as the MSP for Glasgow Southside last week, took her oath in Doric, a traditional Scots dialect traditionally spoken in the north east of the country.

Green Highlands and Islands MSP Ariane Burgess took her oath in Scottish Gaelic, while North East Scotland MSP Maggie Chapman spoke in Shona, the most common language in Zimbabwe, where she was born and brought up.

New Liberal Democrat MSP Yi-pei Chou Turvey, who was born in Taiwan and raised in Brussels, took her oath in both Mandarin and French, while fellow newly elected Lib Dem Sanne Dijkstra Downie, who grew up in the Netherlands, used Dutch.

After being sworn in, MSPs will vote on who the Scottish Parliament’s next presiding officer should be – a job which involves overseeing debates at Holyrood along with the weekly session of First Minister’s Questions.

Four members have put themselves forward for the role: Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur, who served as a deputy presiding officer for the previous five years; and SNP members Kenny Gibson; Stuart McMillan; and Clare Haughey.