Exclusive:Watch: Inside the SNP's 2026 Holyrood election campaign with Angus Robertson

Culture Secretary Angus Robertson is in charge of the nationalists’ election planning, after successfully leading the party to victory back in 2007 and 2011.

For him, instilling a winning mindset in the 73 constituency candidates and using a mix of new and traditional campaign techniques.

The latest polling suggests the SNP will remain the largest party in the Scottish Parliament at next year’s election. This is despite the SNP being hammered at last year’s general election and losing the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election earlier this year.

The Scotsman sat down with Mr Robertson at the SNP conference in Aberdeen to learn more about how he plans to win an unprecedented fifth term in government for the party.

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“There was a total change of mentality in the SNP in the run up to 2007,” Mr Robertson said. “We believed we could win. Part of having that winning mentality is taking nothing for granted. We have to work as if it’s not a given.

“In a democracy, no result is pre-programmed, nobody has an automatic right to win. I think we have the right mindset. We need to work as if our lives depend on it and that the result depends on it.”

Mr Robertson said he had spent most of his time at the three-day conference in Aberdeen giving training sessions for candidates and activists, and learning the latest campaign technology.

He said: “The SNP is in the lead in the polls at the moment, but in the run up to an election you cannot take anything for granted.

“That’s why I’m spending most of my time with the candidates to make sure they are doing everything that we need them to do to win the election next year.”

The party is “doing a bit of science” and data management to help break through and win the 65-seat majority First Minister John Swinney is targeting to press home the party’s independence goal.

Mr Robertson said: “We have a good idea of who is likely to vote for us and who is likely not to vote for us, and who is persuadable.

“That a system based around an app, which is being rolled out especially for this election, which makes it really easy to know where we need to go and who we need to speak to.

“This is the centre of our campaign, being able to see how we’re doing right across the country. To win a majority, we need to win the seats we don’t currently hold and therein lies the task at hand for us.

“We’re just making sure that we can do as much as we can to win as many seats as we can to win the election next year without taking anything for granted. It’s all about hard graft.”

Mr Robertson added: “It’s on me as much as it’s on any other candidate and any other SNP member or voter. We’re all in this together and I’ll play my part in trying to make sure that we win, and win well.”