John Swinney has defended the Scottish Government after its official social media account posted a greeting for a Sikh festival at 11am on Remembrance Sunday, at the exact moment the nation fell silent to remember Britain's war dead.

The post on the government's X account wished followers a “Happy Bandi Chhor Divas”, a major festival in the Sikh calendar marking the release of Guru Hargobind from captivity in 1619. The account published no original post about Remembrance Sunday itself, although it shared a post from Mr Swinney's own account showing him laying a wreath in Edinburgh, and later posted about climate change.

Swinney rejects calls for an explanation

Harriet Cross, the shadow Scottish secretary, wrote to the First Minister demanding to know whose decision it was to publish the festival greeting at 11am and why the account had not marked Remembrance Sunday. She said the timing “cannot be a coincidence” and pointed out that more than 83,000 Sikhs died fighting in the First and Second World Wars.

Mr Swinney replied furiously, calling her letter a “disgusting” attempt to politicise Remembrance Sunday and describing her claim that the government had not acknowledged the day as “categorically false”. A spokesman for the First Minister said social media posts are always issued at 11 o'clock on a Sunday and stressed there would be no review or investigation into the timing.

“It wasn't a political post, it was a post just giving best wishes to Sikhs on the main day of Diwali,” the spokesman said. “We don't think it's inappropriate to give Sikhs our best wishes on Remembrance Sunday. I'm not aware of any plans to revisit that.”

Critics call the timing a snub

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch branded the move “cringe and disrespectful”, while Reform MSP Max Bannerman described it as a “calculated snub” of the war dead. Mr Swinney attended the official Remembrance commemorations in Edinburgh on Sunday and laid a wreath.

The First Minister's own account also drew criticism for wishing Sikhs a “blessed Diwali” rather than marking Bandi Chhor Divas by name. The row has continued into this week, with Ms Cross saying the First Minister owes Scotland's veterans answers rather than another lecture.