Scotland

We are almost there: on Monday, the SNP will appoint its new leader after five weeks of what will surely be remembered as the most controversial and consequential change of leadership in the short history of devolution. Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation in February came as a surprise even to her closest allies. They knew the First Minister was closer to the end of her tenure than the start; it seemed likely she would find a way to avoid standing in the 2026 Scottish parliament election. But even those closest to her did not believe that, six weeks after she boldly told Laura Kuenssberg that ‘there’s plenty in the tank at the

The final debate of the SNP leadership contest, which took place last night, came after a weekend of upheaval for the party. The SNP chief executive Peter Murrell resigned on Saturday. His resignation followed that of Murray Foote, the SNP’s head of communications, who accused the party of telling him to make false statements to the press. And Ash Regan’s campaign team called for the contest to be restarted after revelations about falling membership numbers (and their cover-up) surfaced nearly a week into voting opening. Viewers (or listeners) were understandably unsure how last night’s debate on Times Radio would proceed, given that the very integrity of the Scottish National party,

I don’t know about voter’s remorse but there was precious little remorse from Nicola Sturgeon on Loose Women on Monday for the chaos she inflicted on her party by resigning in pique without giving it a chance to organise an orderly transition. She showed all the insouciance of a teenager who had just wrecked the family car. Nothing to do with me – it’s really your fault for giving me the keys. It was fitting that Nicola Sturgeon should have decided to deliver her valedictory, not to a committee of her peers in parliament – she reportedly sidestepped an invitation from the Scottish Affairs Select Committee – but to a gaggle

Nicola Sturgeon’s valedictory address to the RSA was her ‘And now we turn to the liars…’ speech. The outgoing SNP leader’s remarks were nominally about inequality and climate change but she was really there to talk about the distorting impact of social media on democratic politics. Given her departure was possibly hastened by the pushback against her Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which saw women’s rights campaigners and others organise via social media, it’s understandable that the First Minister would feel a little irked by these disruptively democratic platforms.  The ‘nature of the discourse’, Sturgeon opined, was ‘undermining our ability… to address the big issues’. The ‘damage’ social media was doing

In her eight and a half years at Bute House, Nicola Sturgeon has never been one to show much in the way of grace towards ministers down in London. There were the Brexit debates, where she endlessly sought to undermine those involved in negotiations with Brussels. There were the Covid crises, where she sought to claim the moral high ground by pipping Westminster with unannounced rule-changes. And then there was the Gender Recognition Reform Bill where she paid no heed to constitutional law – and ended up paying the price. So it was no surprise then that Sturgeon’s final act in office – her resignation – was carried out in

And so the Nicola Sturgeon years end with neither a bang or a whimper but with one pitiful desk-clearing after another. Peter Murrell, Sturgeon’s husband and the chief executive of the SNP, has announced his resignation. It comes after Murray Foote, the party’s chief spin doctor, walked on Friday. He had been rubbishing media reports that the party’s membership rolls had shrunk by 30,000 since 2021.  Then, Ash Regan, a candidate in the leadership contest to replace Sturgeon, questioned the integrity of that process and demanded the membership numbers be made public. Backed into a corner, SNP HQ released the figures, which showed a drop in members of 32,000 over

Well, well, well. It’s been a tumultuous time for the SNP recently, and no one knows that better than their own spin doctor Murray Foote. But it all seemed to prove too much this evening as he announced his shock resignation. Standing down after four years of spinning for the party, Mr Foote issued a rather, erm, coded statement. Acting in good faith and as a courtesy to colleagues at party HQ, I issued agreed party responses to media enquiries regarding membership. It has subsequently become apparent there are serious issues with these responses. Consequently, I concluded this created a serious impediment to my role and I resigned my position

Rising NHS waiting lists, a widening attainment gap in education and falling support for independence: Scotland’s next first minister will have a bulging in-tray when he or she assumes office in coming weeks. However one issue in particular seems set to be an early thorn in the side of Scotland’s new leader: the increasingly scandalous debacle of the ferries fiasco. The latest development is today’s Scottish Government announcement of yet another delay in completing the vessels. The first of the boats, Hull 801, otherwise known as the Glen Sannox, is now expected to be ready sometime this autumn instead of May. The other boat, Hull 802, is now expected to be ready