John Swinney has insisted there could be a new independence referendum in 2028 if the SNP win next month's Holyrood election.
The First Minister and SNP leader has put the constitution at the centre of his Scottish Parliament campaign with his party agreeing an SNP majority would be a mandate for a new vote on independence.
Last month, launching the SNP's bid for a fifth term in government, he announced his ambition to contest the 2031 election as Prime Minister of an independent Scotland.
In an interview with the Sunday Times this weekend he insisted the timetable was "achievable" pointing to the timescale before the 2014 vote and the timing set out then for Scotland becoming independent if the Yes side had won.
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“It’s achievable because of the experiences and timescales we had before,” Mr Swinney said. “We had a referendum in 2014, following an election in 2011, and the expectation was that by 2016 Scotland would be an independent country. So I think that’s all eminently reasonable.”
Pressed if there could there be a referendum as soon as 2028, he said: “That would be my expectation, because I want to press on with it as quickly as possible."
Former SNP leader and First Minister Alex Salmond set out a timetable ahead of the 2014 referendum that Scotland would become independent within just 18 months if it voted Yes in 2014.
However, Mr Swinney is faced by several challenges including updating the case for independence amid global turmoil; and polling predicting that the SNP will not win a majority in next month's election which has only been secured once since devolution when Mr Salmond won a majority for the SNP in 2011.
The First Minister also faces the hurdle that even if his party won a majority the UK Government has said it would not agree to a new independence referendum.
Reform UK, which polling suggests may form the next UK Government, has left the door open to a new vote should Nigel Farage become Prime Minister in 2029, though he has said he does believe there will be a popular will for one.
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Pointing to an independence referendum being a "once in a generation event", the vote being in 2014 and a generation being 25 years, he has suggested a possible timescale for a second independence referendum being around 2039 - some 13 years away.
Last month he told The Herald: "People were promised here in 2014 that the referendum on separation from the United Kingdom was a once in a generation thing, which would mean about 25 years.
"I can't predict for a moment what it will be. I very much doubt there will ever be a popular will for a vote to break up the United Kingdom."
Reform UK's Holyrood manifesto rules out a referendum within the next ten years saying this period should be spent focusing on "turbo-charging" Scotland's economy. However, it leaves open what would happen after 2036.
It states: "It will take ten years (two Holyrood terms) to implement this manifesto to turbocharge the economy in Scotland, which will unleash the resources required to deliver significant reforms to our health service, our education, our housing and our infrastructure.
"Which is why Reform UK says ENOUGH to the distraction of another referendum."
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: "John Swinney's latest comments make it crystal clear that he's deadly serious about breaking up the UK and it would be naive to think otherwise.
"From day one of this election campaign he's put his lifelong independence obsession front and centre.
"I'm hugely concerned that if Swinney achieves a majority, Keir Starmer will meekly capitulate to his referendum demands.
"Labour are too weak to stand up to Swinney, while Reform's Lord Offord is relaxed about another divisive referendum.
"As ever, only the Scottish Conservatives can be trusted to defend the Union which is why voters must back us on the peach ballot paper to stop an SNP majority. Having done it in 2016 and 2021, we can do it again in 2026."
Scottish Lib Dem MP Wendy Chamberlain said: “The SNP haven’t met their cancer target for 13 years and its taken them 19 years and they still haven’t abolished the council tax or cut class sizes.
“There’s a touch of Trump to John Swinney’s insistence that completely impossible things will just magically happen. He must think independence supporters are pretty gullible.
“The lesson from Brexit should be to distrust anyone promising that breaking up a longstanding union will be walk in the park.
“If you want the SNP to stop wasting so much time talking about breaking up the UK, the best way to do that is to vote for the Scottish Liberal Democrats in our ten target constituencies and deny them the majority that John Swinney craves.
"Then by backing us on the peach regional ballot voters can secure a Parliament full of MSPs who actually want to get on with tackling the cost of living crisis and delivering swift local access to healthcare.”
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