Scotland

Tensions are brewing between Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot and John Swinney’s SNP north of the border. Now Scotland Secretary Ian Murray has hit out at the Nats, urging the Scottish government to ditch their cack-handed foreign affairs efforts and focus on Scotland’s domestic issues instead. It’s not like they’ve already had almost two decades to get started on this, eh? Murray blasted the SNP government over its financial woes, saying its difficulties were ‘because of the choices [it has] made and [it] should be prioritising the things that are the top priority for the Scottish people’. The Scotland Secretary went on to make a rather direct jibe at the

The SNP hasn’t wanted for its woes lately but now there is fresh trouble on the way. Lorna Slater, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, tells the BBC it is ‘unlikely’ that her party will vote for the next Scottish government budget after the Nationalists unveiled £500 million in cuts aimed at balancing Holyrood’s books. Many of the services reduced or scrapped in SNP finance minister Shona Robison’s announcement last week were originally put in place by the Greens when they were in coalition between 2021 and 2024. Humza Yousaf’s decision in April to end the governing pact brought a vote of no confidence and the announcement of his resignation four

All is not well in Holyrood. The SNP announced its programme for government on Wednesday – but it hasn’t left many impressed. And now it transpires that the governing party is set to face further problems in passing its budget, as it continues to fail to work with its political opponents. Not like the Nats to rub people up the wrong way, eh? Once in a co-operation agreement with the SNP, it seems the Scottish Greens are still rather upset with the nationalists. Patrick Harvie’s barmy army has thrown its toys out the pram after Swinney’s speech revealed that policies the parties had formerly worked on together were to be

Humiliation really does concentrate the political mind, doesn’t it? Over the years when the SNP dominated the Scottish parliamentary chamber, ministers spent little time reaching across party lines. Indeed, by the time Nicola Sturgeon was first minister in 2014, for every SNP MSP missing the point in Holyrood, there was another pointing and jeering at anyone who disagreed with them. In July, the SNP lost 39 of its 48 Westminster seats. Suddenly, cooperation and collaboration became the order of the day. Opposition politicians smell SNP blood First Minister John Swinney was the very model of the reasonable man as he announced the SNP’s ‘Programme for Government’ on Wednesday afternoon. To

The Scottish Conservative leadership election is now Russell Findlay’s to lose. The West Scotland MSP has secured three big endorsements: former Scottish Secretaries Lord Forsyth and David Mundell, and shadow Scottish Secretary John Lamont. It means all five Scottish Tory MPs support his campaign, alongside 12 MSPs, two council leaders and leading party donors Alasdair Locke, Alan Massie and Robert Kilgour. Right-winger Forsyth has an op-ed in today’s Scottish Mail on Sunday hailing Findlay’s ‘courage, competence, conviction and compassion’ and predicting that his leadership would see the Tories shift focus to ‘the real day-to-day concerns of every voter’. Left-winger Mundell believes Findlay has ‘the life experience’ and skills to win back ex-Tories

As the SNP conference weekend kicks off, another Scottish story is starting to take shape. It has emerged that detectives north of the border are now investigating allegations that a senior civil servant gave a false statement under oath to an inquiry into sexual misconduct allegations involving Alex Salmond. Edinburgh’s Court of Session was informed today that Police Scotland is now looking into the Scottish government’s head of cabinet, parliament and governance, James Hynd, as part of the investigation entitled Operation Broadcroft. Good heavens… Ex-SNP leader Salmond is taking legal action agains the Scottish government – with the former FM alleging ‘malfeasance’ by civil servants and seeking ‘significant damages’. Salmond claims

Something interesting is happening in the Scottish Conservative leadership election, and while I appreciate you might be sceptical about the juxtaposition of ‘interesting’ and ‘Scottish Conservative’, there is a certain dynamic at play. Unlike the race for UK Tory leader, the contest is not between left and right, for there isn’t really a right to speak of in the Scottish Tory party. Nor is it a battle between reform and the status quo, for all three candidates are chirping incessantly about ‘change’. The real dynamic is insiders versus outsiders. Russell Findlay is not a central casting Tory I’ve written about this in an essay in the Mail today, but I

Oh dear. Tory leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat has been rather excited about all the support he’s received from his counterparts north of the border. So far almost a third of the 31 Scottish Conservative MSPs have backed Tugendhat – and in his excitement to announce his latest supporters, the Tory contender’s team accidentally, um, fabricated one. Details, details… Tugendhat’s lot put out a press release this morning celebrating two of his newest endorsements, only it quickly transpired that one of the politicians in question didn’t actually exist. Alexander Brown is not actually a serving MSP – despite multiple references to the unknown politician. Halfway through the press release, however, Tugendhat’s