EUAN MCCOLM: John Swinney - The party lifer who's back after the disasters of his past

Twenty years ago, John Swinney was hounded from the leadership of the SNP after a disastrous four years in charge.

Humiliation for the nationalists at successive elections during the Swinney era saw him written off as a failure.

But that hasn't stopped SNP members uniting behind Mr Swinney in the hope he can save their party from electoral oblivion.

The 60-year-old MSP for Perthshire North was the sole candidate when nominations to succeed Humza Yousaf as party leader closed at noon yesterday and he will now be nominated as the SNP's candidate to become the seventh First Minister of Scotland since the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh opened, 25 years ago.

Mr Swinney will inherit a party mired in scandal, divided on both independence strategy and controversial gender ideology, and plummeting in the polls.

It says little for the SNP as a home of bright new talent that, in this time of deep crisis, it has dragged back to the frontline a man who, just a year ago, was adamant he had served his time.

An SNP 'lifer' – he joined the party at the age of 15 – Mr Swinney was a management consultant and life assurance industry executive before becoming MP for Tayside North in 1997. 

Two years later, he was among the first intake of MSPs at Holyrood.

An early reputation for competence was shattered when Mr Swinney succeeded Alex Salmond as party leader in 2000.

For four years, he was undermined by rivals within the SNP and, unable to stamp his authority on the party, Mr Swinney suffered a series of bruising election results.

When the SNP fared poorly in the 2004 Euro elections, a visit from the men in grey kilts brought his leadership to an end.

Fearful the subsequent leadership contest might be won by someone from the SNP's radical wing, Mr Salmond returned as leader, going on to become Scotland's first nationalist First Minister in 2007.

Mr Swinney's authority across the party grew during the SNP's time in power. 

He was a member of the tiny clique – including Mr Salmond and his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon – that ran the SNP with an iron fist.

Announcing his candidacy to replace Mr Yousaf, who resigned in advance of a confidence vote he hadn't the numbers to win, Mr Swinney said he had come forward because of the need for change.

His party had to change and if it didn't, there would be tougher times to come.

Scottish voters may be sceptical about Mr Swinney's ability to change the direction in which his party has been travelling.

When Ms Sturgeon succeeded Mr Salmond as First Minister after defeat for the nationalists in the 2014 independence referendum, she appointed Mr Swinney her deputy.

For the next nine years, the pair were politically inseparable as the SNP pursued a raft of policies that were out of kilter with the priorities of voters.

Mr Swinney was right by Ms Sturgeon's side as she fomented deeper division with endless promises of a second referendum she had no power to deliver.

And he was one of the key architects of the Bute House Agreement that brought the Scottish Greens into power and saw them pressure SNP ministers to push ahead with a law that gave trans people the right to self-identify.

As it came into conflict with the UK-wide Equality Act, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack was compelled to block it, a move that proved to be the beginning of the end for Ms Sturgeon.

Mr Swinney stepped down as Deputy First Minister when Ms Sturgeon resigned last year.

SNP members now see John Swinney as their saviour but the harsh reality is that he was right behind every government misstep that helped bring his party to its knees.

He is the very definition of 'yesterday's man'.