John Swinney has said the SNP are "very optimistic" for the Holyrood elections after witnessing Sir Keir Starmer's first 100 days as Prime Minister.
Sir Keir reached 100 days in Downing Street on Saturday, however, his short time in office has saw the Prime Minister face significant scrutiny.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves warned there were very tough financial decisions ahead after the new Labour administration identified a £2 billion back hole in the public purse, which the party claims was left over from the previous Conservative government.
The government faced additional challenges after Ms Reeves announced the winter fuel payment would be means tested so that just pensioners receiving Pension Credit could access the payment of at least £200 towards energy costs.
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That included around 10 million pensioners across the UK and 900,000 in Scotland. And the Prime Minister has faced internal calls to reverse the decision, with Labour members using the party's conference in Liverpool to back a motion which demanded a U-turn.
Senior government ministers, including the Prime Minister, have also been marred in a donations row, including clothing gifts worth tens of thousands of pounds.
Sir Keir has since said he will pay back £6,000 which covers the costs of gifts he received while Prime Minister, including six Taylor Swift tickets and a clothing rental agreement with a designer used by his wife Victoria.
Speaking to journalists at St Andrew's House in Edinburgh, Mr Swinney said the mood within his party was positive as a result.
He said he believed the SNP can bounce back from a disastrous general election result with a new focus on the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections.
"I'm very optimistic that we can perform well in 2026. I'm very, very optimistic about that.
"We're setting about doing that as well speak."
On Sir Keir's first 100 days in office, the First Minister said: "Let's just say I don't think the first 100 days have been plain sailing. Let me put it that way."
The election saw the SNP win just nine seats, with their only gain of the evening coming from Aberdeenshire North and Moray East as they unseated former Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross.
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said “While the SNP snipes from the side lines, Labour is working to fix the foundations of our country and clean up the mess the Tories left behind.
“In just 100 days Labour has started setting up GB energy, introduced our New Deal for Working people, scrapped the Tories’ cruel Rwanda plan, created the National Wealth Fund, established a Child Poverty Taskforce and so much more.
“We have started the process of delivering change across the UK, and in 2026 we will give Scots the chance to vote for change in Holyrood.”
Despite Mr Swinney's optimism, several polls have suggested the SNP may fail to form a government in 2026.
A Survation poll, carried out for Progress Scotland, the think tank launched by Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson, forecasted that Scottish Labour's popularity had plummeted following the winter fuel payment row.
Voters were quizzed on their Holyrood voting intentions, with both Labour and the SNP forecasted at around 31% of the constituency vote - a fall of 6% from the May vote for Labour.
On the list vote, the SNP is on 28%, down two, while Labour is on 26%, down nine.
However it is predicted Labour would return 44 seats to the SNP's 38, with the Tories on 15, the Greens and Lib Dems on 11 each while Reform would win 10,
In these circumstances, the only way John Swinney could block a Labour government would be to try and form some sort of deal with the Scottish Greens.
But even them it would almost certainly be blocked by the unionist parties.
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