John Swinney, the Scottish National party leader, has declared victory in the Holyrood elections after only a handful of results confirmed Labour had been comprehensively beaten. Speaking to the BBC after holding his own seat of Perthshire North, Swinney said he was “absolutely certain the SNP is going to be the leading party coming out of this election”. He said he would be “privileged” to form the next Scottish government after leading his party to its fifth successive victory. “I think that’s a reflection of the work that we’ve undertaken to rebuild public confidence and trust in the SNP,” he said. A little earlier the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, conceded that his party had comprehensively lost, after admitting the party failed to counter the “national dissatisfaction” with Keir Starmer.…