Scotland’s first minister resigns after failing to muster enough votes to survive a no confidence vote this week
Humza Yousaf is holding a press conference at noon, Sky News and the BBC are reporting.
Mandy Rhodes, editor of the Holyrood magazine, says she was due to interview Humza Yousaf this afternoon, but he’s cancelled.
Continue reading...Net migration to the UK in 2023 is estimated at 672,000, and the PM says a more ‘sustainable’ level is needed. This live blog is closed
When Nigel Farage was leading the Brexit party, it was considerably influential for a party with no MPs, winning the European elections in 2019 and helping to push the Conservative party into a harder position on Brexit. After the 2019 election it was renamed Reform UK, Richard Tice took over as leader and it became much more marginal. But in an interview on the Today programme this morning Tice claimed that the government’s failure to bring down immigration was presenting it with an opportunity. He told the programme:
The British people voted to control immigration, and the government have betrayed the people’s promises. And that’s why so many thousands of people, former Tory members, are joining us. Our polling numbers – we got record polling last week, four different polls where we’re in double figures. This week, we’ve had Tory donors joining us. Frankly, I fully expect Tory MPs who are furious and angry with the government to be calling me next week.
[Cleverly] has made the point that he says that it was not aimed at a particular place. Knowing James well, he’s not the sort of person, in my opinion, who would have made that kind of remark in that kind of context.
But he has accepted that this was certainly unparliamentary language and he has rightly apologised.
Continue reading...PM insists ‘mixed’ results also included some ‘remarkable gains’ for Conservatives; Labour, Lib Dems and Greens celebrate key wins
One of the trickiest contests for Labour is in Sunderland, where it risks losing control of the council for the first time since it was founded in 1974, says the Guardian’s North Of England correspondent Josh Halliday.
Labour has a majority of only six councillors on the 75-seat authority, meaning it could easily fall into no overall control when ballots are counted.
There are enough clues on the doorstep and judging by the scale of the postal vote, that’s gone extremely well and we’re getting a big turnout. That said, neither party can be overly confident about which way many seats will go.
Partygate doesn’t come up as much as you’d think and for those who have brought it up they’ve said things like ‘You’re all as bad as each other’ or ‘that’s politics’.
Continue reading...First minister says there is ‘no democratic justification’ for No 10 denying second vote
Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to press ahead with plans for a second independence referendum after the Scottish National party won its fourth consecutive Holyrood election, triggering a constitutional battle with Boris Johnson.
In a letter issued before the final results were declared, Johnson attempted to blunt Sturgeon’s attack by urging the first minister and her opposite numbers in Wales and Northern Ireland to join a UK-wide Covid recovery summit involving all four governments.
Continue reading...Holyrood committee highly critical of Scottish first minister’s accounts of meeting with former mentor
Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of misleading the Scottish parliament over her dealings with Alex Salmond, but not knowingly, in a highly critical report by MSPs.
A specially convened Holyrood committee voted by a 5-4 margin to find the first minister had misled parliament over her accounts of a meeting with Salmond, her former mentor, in April 2018.
Continue reading...Respondents say their trust in both Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond dented by Holyrood inquiry
Most Scots would vote to remain in the UK if an independence referendum were held tomorrow, a new poll has found.
The survey of 1,015 Scots suggests that 46% would vote against Scottish independence, compared with 43% in favour.
Continue reading...Campaigners believe Holyrood crisis may prevent women from coming forward to report harassment
The Salmond inquiry is having a significant impact on the momentum for change brought about by the #MeToo movement, according to experts and campaigners on workplace harassment.
They have told the Guardian the political crisis convulsing Holyrood has also had a “chilling” and “demoralising” effect on women in terms of their confidence in reporting unacceptable behaviour.
Continue reading...Scotland’s first minister is appearing before MSPs, amid multiple allegations that she broke the ministerial code
Murdo Fraser, Scottish Conservatives, asks about the extent of ministerial overview of the judicial review brought by Salmond over the investigation into harassment allegations against him?
The first minister replies that she was a named party. It was not something that she discussed every day. She says it was “not an unusual degree of involvement or oversight”, pointing out that there have been several judicial reviews against her government.
Mitchell says no one would want to come forward because of the way these complainers were treated.
Sturgeon says they are the most important people in this story. They were let down by government mistakes.
Continue reading...First minister was given legal advice about significant potential conflict of interest but case continued
Nicola Sturgeon faces calls to resign after previously secret legal advice and new witness evidence raised fresh questions over whether Scotland’s first minister misled parliament about the Alex Salmond crisis.
On Tuesday evening the Scottish government released confidential legal advice that showed its lawyers had warned Sturgeon and her most senior officials that evidence of a potentially unlawful conflict of interest inside the government was “extremely concerning” and a “very real problem indeed”.
Continue reading...Former first minister launches a stinging attack on the SNP during evidence to a Holyrood inquiry
Alex Salmond has suggested that weak and incompetent leadership of Scotland’s institutions could undermine the case for independence, in a bitter attack on his former allies and party.
The former first minister said huge deficiencies had been exposed in the running of the Scottish government and the Crown Office, as he blamed both institutions for forcing him to live through a “nightmare” during the last three years.
Continue reading...First minister says she will hold advisory referendum, whether Westminster consents or not
Nicola Sturgeon says she will hold an advisory referendum on independence if the Scottish National party wins a majority in May’s Holyrood elections, regardless of whether Westminster consents to the move.
Her party is setting out an 11-point roadmap for taking forward another vote, which will be presented to members of the SNP’s national assembly on Sunday.
Continue reading...Revolt criticising policies on independence, economy and transgender rights could also see Alex Salmond return to party
Nicola Sturgeon faces a growing rebellion over her leadership style that is expected to involve Alex Salmond being readmitted to the Scottish National party next year.
More than 20 activists, councillors and MPs critical of Sturgeon’s leadership and her policies on independence, the economy and transgender rights were elected last week to the party’s national executive as office bearers and ruling committees, to the shock of party leaders.
Continue reading...Gordon Jackson was filmed on train talking about Salmond and sexual assault trial
The lawyer who helped secure Alex Salmond’s acquittal over allegations of sexual assault has quit as the head of Scotland’s advocates body after a furore over remarks he made about Salmond and his accusers.
Gordon Jackson QC announced on Friday he was standing down as the dean of the Faculty of Advocates, one of the most powerful posts in Scotland’s legal profession, because he is under investigation for professional misconduct.
Continue reading...Ex-first minister believed to be furious over treatment by SNP and Nicola Sturgeon’s office
Alex Salmond is expected to sue the Scottish government over the alleged role of its senior officials in his prosecution for sexual assaults, his allies have disclosed.
Sources close to the former first minister said he believed senior figures inside the government and Nicola Sturgeon’s office helped orchestrate significant parts of the case against him, and that he intends to sue for extensive damages.
Continue reading...Nicola Sturgeon’s party is now in the sights of its vindicated and emboldened ex-leader
When Nicola Sturgeon addressed a private gathering of Scottish National party politicians at Edinburgh Napier University towards the end of August 2018 and little more than a week after the original sexual harassment allegations against her predecessor Alex Salmond were made public, she spoke frankly: “How we deal with this and how we are seen to respond to this will say a lot about who we are as a party and also about the country we are today and want to build for the future.”
Speaking outside the high court in Edinburgh on Monday afternoon following his acquittal on 13 charges of sexual assault, Alex Salmond suggested that the verdicts would ultimately say something very different about the SNP. He referred to “certain evidence I would like to have seen led in this trial”, which would now “see the light of day”. Sources close to the former first minister were already briefing his belief that Nicola Sturgeon herself played a role.
Continue reading...Former first minister’s allies claim he was victim of SNP witch-hunt after he is cleared
Alex Salmond has been acquitted of all charges of sexual assault, a decision that prompted his allies to suggest he had been the victim of a witch-hunt within the Scottish National party.
A jury of eight women and five men at the high court in Edinburgh on Monday found Salmond not guilty of 12 charges of attempted rape, sexual assault and indecent assault after about six hours of deliberations.
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