Category Archives: Scotland

Future Partygate revelations may be even worse for Boris Johnson, says Tory MP – UK politics live

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Latest updates: a Conservative MP calling for the PM to resign says he fears there are more fines to come for Johnson

More than 35 homebuilders have agreed to put £2bn towards fixing unsafe cladding on high-rise buildings in England identified in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster, Michael Gove, the housing secretary, has said. My colleague Rowena Mason has the story here.

The Conservative MP Nigel Mills has told PA Media more about why he thinks Boris Johnson should go now (see 9.10am) and why he does not accept that this would be a mistake because of the war in Ukraine. He said:

I have two comments on that. The first one is, when will Ukraine be any better than it is now? If you told me this crisis would be over in three months’ time, then you might say, ‘well OK, let’s get this done [then] the prime minister can meet his fate’.

But the Ukraine crisis could last for a very, very long time. Are we saying there’s no chance of a change of prime minister for years?

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Boris Johnson ‘made a mockery’ of UK’s Covid sacrifices, says Ruth Davidson

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Former Scottish Tory leader renews calls for PM to resign, in split from current leader Douglas Ross

Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Tory leader, has renewed her calls for Boris Johnson to quit over the partygate scandal as she accused him of “traducing” the office of prime minister.

One of the first Tories to call for his resignation when the scandal first broke, Davidson echoed a handful of Tory MPs who confirmed on Wednesday they stood by their no-confidence letters after Johnson’s fine for breaching his government’s Covid rules.

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Johnson says trans athletes should not compete in events that do not match biological sex

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PM also says women should have ‘dedicated’ spaces, amid fallout over decision to exclude trans conversion practices from ban

Boris Johnson has suggested athletes who are transgender should not be allowed to compete in sports competitions that do not match their biological sex, amid the fallout from his decision not to ban conversion practices for people questioning their gender.

The prime minister said the issue “wasn’t something I thought that I would have to consider in great detail”. Johnson also said that women should have spaces in hospitals, prisons and changing rooms which were “dedicated to women”.

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UK temperatures to plummet to as low as minus 6C over weekend

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Gardeners warned of frost damage to blooms on Saturday night ahead of a week of unsettled weather

The UK is braced for more wintry weather across the weekend with frost creeping in overnight and temperatures set to plummet as low as minus 6C in some areas.

Forecasters said the “peaks and troughs” of spring will hit most of the country over the next week, with sunny spells and windy intervals expected in most regions.

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UK local elections: what is up for grabs, and what might we learn?

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The elections on 5 May will be a key test for Boris Johnson after ‘partgate’, but they are often difficult to predict. Here is our handy guide to the polls

Much of the UK will go the polls on 5 May for local and regional elections that will be seen as a key test for Boris Johnson after months of negative headlines over allegedly lockdown-breaking parties. Local elections can be hard to decode, so here is what is up for grabs, and what we might learn.

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John Menzies accepts takeover bid from Kuwaiti aviation services rival Agility

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Edinburgh-based firm agrees to £571m offer that will create world’s largest airport services firm

Executives at the British aviation services company John Menzies have accepted a £571m takeover deal from a Kuwaiti rival, after rebuffing three previous offers.

A subsidiary of Agility Public Warehousing had made the bid more than a month ago, which was conditional at the time, although the John Menzies board said it would accept the offer.

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Weekly Covid cases in UK increase by 1m, figures show

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ONS says one in 11 people in Scotland had coronavirus in week ending 20 March – country’s highest figure since survey began

The number of coronavirus infections across the UK rose by an estimated 1m compared with the previous week, with figures in Scotland at a record high, data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed.

According to the latest information from the ONS, based on swabs collected from randomly selected households, an estimated 9% of the population in Scotland had Covid in the week ending 20 March, about one in 11 people. The figure is the highest recorded by the survey since it began looking at the situation in Scotland in October 2020.

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Jacob Rees-Mogg says Ukraine war shows Partygate scandal was just ‘fluff’ – as it happened

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Brexit opportunities minister says people will find Partygate scandal ‘fundamentally trivial’ in the context of war in Ukraine. This live blog has now closed.

“I think people respect honesty,” says Rishi Sunak. A few weeks ago this would have been seen as an obvious dig at Sunak’s boss, but it did not sound like that today. He was talking about Treasury policy in the early days of the Covid pandemic, and how he felt it was important to admit that government policy would not be able to save all jobs.

Now he’s talking about the family dog. He was oppoosed to getting a puppy for a long time, he says, but when he became chancellor, he was spending so much time at work that he lost the moral authority to say no.

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Scotland and Wales want to act as Ukrainian refugee ‘super sponsors’

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Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford tell UK government they want to ‘maximise’ their contributions

Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford have said Scotland and Wales are willing to become “super sponsors” for Ukrainian refugees.

The UK government is to launch a scheme where individuals and organisations can sponsor refugees to come into the country, but the Scottish and Welsh first ministers told Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, they wanted to “maximise” their contribution and act as “super sponsors”.

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Man who died on Ben Nevis named as father-to-be Samuel Crawford

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The 28-year-old was among 24 climbers caught on Britain’s highest mountain during ‘ferocious’ weather

A man who died after falling about 300 metres (1,000ft) down the UK’s highest mountain has been named as Samuel Crawford.

The 28-year-old climber from Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, slipped on the west side of Ben Nevis on 8 March , suffering fatal injuries, as 23 others were rescued in “ferocious” conditions.

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Scottish Tory leader withdraws letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson

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Long a critic of the PM, Douglas Ross cites Ukraine war and says now is no time for change of leadership

The Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, has withdrawn his letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson, citing the war in Ukraine and saying it was no time for a change of leadership.

Ross, who has been an outspoken critic of the prime minister, had criticised him over lockdown parties in Downing Street. Johnson, along with dozens of staff and officials, is under police investigation for the breaches.

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Wrongly built drainage system led to Stonehaven train crash, investigators find

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Network Rail failed to notice that works by Carillion on Aberdeen to Glasgow line did not match the design

A drainage system wrongly built by Carillion and unchecked by Network Rail led to the Stonehaven train crash, investigators have found, when a Scotrail train hit debris washed by rain on to the railway track.

Three people died on 12 August 2020 in the worst fatal event on the UK railways in 18 years, when the passenger train from Aberdeen to Glasgow derailed at Carmont, near Stonehaven, after heavy rainfall.

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Tory peer attended Cop26 summit for Russia, UN list shows

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Former energy minister Greg Barker went to climate talks as part of Russian Federation party

A Conservative peer attended Cop26 in Glasgow as part of Russia’s group of participants at the UN climate summit, the Guardian can reveal.

Greg Barker, a former energy minister when David Cameron was prime minister, attended the talks as part of the party of the Russian Federation, according to a list published by the UN.

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Report urges Scottish government to introduce misogyny act

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Working group led by Helena Kennedy QC recommends law to crack down on daily abuses that ‘absolutely degrade women’s lives’

A misogyny act for Scotland, created exclusively for women to crack down on street harassment, organised online hate and an onslaught of rape and disfigurement threats, has been recommended to the Scottish government by Helena Kennedy.

Set up in February 2021 to consider the creation of a standalone offence of misogynist hate crime, Lady Kennedy’s working group has returned a far more ambitious report that recommends naming explicitly the daily abuses that “absolutely degrade women’s lives”.

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Hailed as heroes – Scottish gardeners who rescued trio from Ukraine

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Joe McCarthy and Gary Taylor were held at gunpoint by Russians before successfully evacuating Irish woman and Nigerian men

Two Scottish gardeners have rescued three students – one Irish and two Nigerian – who were trapped in the wartorn city of Sumy in the north-east of Ukraine.

Along the way, the men were held at gunpoint by Russian soldiers – but were then rescued themselves by locals.

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Corporate tree-planting drive in Scotland ‘risks widening rural inequality’

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Surge of estate sales to big firms has driven up prices and increased elitism of land ownership, says report

A drive by wealthy companies to plant forests in the Scottish Highlands to offset their carbon emissions risks creating even greater inequalities in rural areas, a major report has warned.

The analysis says a surge of Highland estate sales to major corporations and cash-rich investors, such as Aviva, Standard Life and BrewDog, has driven up land prices sharply and increased the elitism and exclusivity of land ownership, while they aim to limit climate heating.

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UK considers banning Russian ships from British ports

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The NS Champion oil tanker, majority-owned by the Russian state, is due to berth in Orkney on Tuesday

The UK government is considering restricting Russian ships from using British ports after it emerged that a Russian-owned oil tanker is due to dock in Orkney this week.

The NS Champion, operated by Sovcomflot, a large shipping company majority-owned by the Russian state, is due to berth at Flotta oil terminal in Orkney on Tuesday to collect crude oil.

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NHS Scotland Covid app rebuked for breaching data privacy laws

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UK watchdog says app was not clear about how data is used and it may consider ‘further regulatory action’

The Scottish government and NHS Scotland have been rebuked for breaching data privacy laws on a Covid vaccine status app downloaded by millions of people.

The Information Commissioner’s Office, which polices the UK’s privacy laws, said it had warned the Scottish government and NHS last year that there were serious privacy problems with the app, but not all those problems were fixed before it was launched.

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Remains of ‘world’s largest Jurassic pterosaur’ recovered in Scotland

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Discovery shows pterosaurs with a 2.5-metre wingspan existed about 25m years earlier than previously thought

It might be best known today for its otters and puffins but 170m years ago the Isle of Skye was home to an enormous flying reptile with a wingspan bigger than a kingsize bed, researchers have revealed.

Fossil hunters in Scotland say they have recovered the remains of the world’s largest Jurassic pterosaur, adding the creature – known informally as a pterodactyl – also boasted a mouthful of sharp teeth for spearing and trapping fish.

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Pine martens to be used as ‘bouncers’ to keep grey squirrels out of Highlands

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Exclusive: Dens being installed on east coast and A9 after predator’s return was found to reduce numbers of greys

Pine martens are to be deployed as wildlife bouncers along the east coast of Scotland and the A9 corridor to halt the northward march of grey squirrels.

More than 35 artificial pine marten dens are being installed by Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) at strategic locations on the grey squirrels’ path of northward migration in an attempt to save the Highland red squirrel populations.

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