Yousaf names majority-female Scottish cabinet after Forbes rejects role

New first minister announces appointments as he seeks to move past divisive leadership contest

Scotland’s new first minister, Humza Yousaf, has revealed a majority-female cabinet, with half its members under the age of 40, as his attempts to unite the party stalled after a divisive leadership contest.

Kate Forbes, whom Yousaf narrowly beat to secure the SNP leadership on Monday, confirmed on Tuesday evening she would be leaving the Scottish government rather than accept a cabinet demotion.

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Tory former policing minister warns Braverman that laughing gas ban could boost trade for drug dealers – UK politics live

Kit Malthouse tells home secretary of risks of moving substance from legitimate market into the illegitimate market

As Alex Wickham from Politico points out, the questions Rishi Sunak is getting this morning suggest this audience is not happy with the government’s record on crime.

Q: The Conservatives have “dropped the ball a little bit, to be honest”. The questioner says laughing gas is the least of their problems. People are using much harder drugs. He has skimmed through the action plan document. Some of it is good. But punishments need to be firmer. People probably won’t turn up for community sentences. And the government needs to tackle drugs at source.

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