John Swinney has survived a challenge to his leadership of the SNP.

He saw off a grassroots opponent to secure 80 per cent of the vote at the Scottish National Party's conference in Inverness.

Swinney took 577 votes to 111, overwhelmingly defeating Dr Bill Wilson who took on the leadership after dismal election results for the Scottish parliament.The SNP's leader described the result as a turning point and called for an end to "the corrosive re-running of past contests".

"This is the moment when this party draws a line, this party moves on, and I expect every single member of the party to move on today," he said.

Wilson argued that the vote had forced the party to confront its problems and that he had simply voiced what many members felt.

"Many people that voted might have voted for John but agreed with many of the things I was saying," he told journalists."The point was I came in at the start to try and raise the arguments, I felt strongly that the grassroots voices were not being heard and I came in to try and make that voice heard."

Swinney used the conference to renew the SNP's call for a referendum on Scotland's independence.

"I want to make sure there are no roadblocks on the way to independence," he said.

"If we have some uncertainty about why people have voted for the SNP, the unionist parties and the Brit establishment will put up every roadblock to stop us succeeding."

Earlier he had warned that the SNP must unite or accept that independence will remain an elusive dream."We have a choice. We can be obsessed with the hows of independence, but then we will be ignored by the vast number of people who need to know the whys," he said.

"And, if they ignore us, independence will remain a dream."

He said that the SNP must reform its internal structures and mounted a stout defence of his plan to offer a referendum before independence.

"If the election taught us one thing, it taught us this: those involved in the political process need to look outwards, not inwards," Swinney said.

"We need to address the concerns of the electorate, not just the concerns of our party, because they weren't listening in May. They thought we were too obsessed with our own concerns, not theirs."