Scotland

Oh dear. NHS Fife has come under fire yet again after it emerged that the health board shared details of nurse Sandie Peggie with the Scottish government. Peggie was suspended in January 2024 after complaining about sharing a changing room with transgender medic Dr Beth Upton. The nurse then lodged a harassment complaint under the 2010 Equality Act – prompting a trans tribunal against NHS Fife – before earlier this year Dr Upton accused her of bullying and harassment. In July, Peggie was cleared of all gross misconduct allegations – and it has now emerged that NHS Fife briefings sent to SNP ministers contained unredacted details about the A&E nurse.

If you’d like to know whether the Labour MP Joani Reid is any good, canvass the opinions of some of her colleagues in the Commons. You’ll hear that the 39-year-old is, variously, too big for her boots, an attention seeker, and, of course, a right-wing Zionist stooge. More than one comrade will tell you she’s only an MP because of who her grandfather was. It doesn’t matter that the much-admired trade unionist Jimmy Reid died in 2010 or that he was a member of the SNP at the time. He just fixed it for her, right? That’s how it works. But Reid, the MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven (a seat she snatched back from the Scottish nationalists last year) is a very good parliamentarian indeed.

There was a feeling of relief in the air at the SNP’s conference in Aberdeen when, for the first time in years, organisers could accurately describe the main hall as full. The choice of the P&J Live was a risky one (and one, I was told, that is unlikely to be made again) given its expansive size makes everything else, including the crowd, seem pretty small. But a sense of cautious optimism persisted: First Minister and party leader John Swinney had stabilised the party after a torrid few years of infighting and police probes and, in part thanks to Nigel Farage’s effectiveness and Keir Starmer’s lack thereof, the party was back to polling well ahead of Labour.

Well, well, well. SNP conference has gotten off to a rather, er, interesting start. As one might expect, the subject of independence has dominated the first day of the big meet-up in Aberdeen. The party's strategy as laid out by First Minister John Swinney says that an SNP majority at next year's Holyrood election would be a mandate for a second independence referendum. But party activists aren't happyabout the state of the SNP: both its independence stance and the way the party has conducted itself more generally over the last few years.

After two years of war, both Hamas and the Israeli government have agreed to a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump. The pact will see the remaining hostages released by Hamas and the bombing of Gaza to stop. British politicians of all stripes have lauded the deal, while Trump has been praised for his part in the negotiations. But one former first minister has been more than a little begrudging in his praise for the President's coup. Ex-SNP first minister Humza Yousaf, whose wife had family living in Gaza, was quizzed today on BBC Radio Scotland about whether he accepted that Trump was helping bring about peace.

The Conservative party conference may be drawing to a close, but the fighting spirit of the Tories isn't going anywhere. At the Spectator's well-attended Scotland event this afternoon – 'Can the Tories turn back the teal tide?' – MPs Andrew Bowie and Harriet Cross were packing the punches. The story of the Scottish Tories isn't a negative one, they insisted, despite polling suggesting the next Scottish Parliament election could see them become the fourth party in Holyrood. Oh dear… But it wasn't just Reform that was under attack from this punchy panel: shadow Scotland secretary Bowie had some stern words for the Kemi Badenoch detractors in his party.

To the Scottish Tory reception at Conservative Party conference, where leader Kemi Badenoch gave a rather punchy address before popping over to the Welsh Conservative event – her ‘second favourite devolved nation’, quipped Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay.  Lauding Findlay, Badenoch expressed her admiration for how he has coped with the journalist crowd north of the border. Turning on the Scottish lobby, Badenoch was not quite as gushing: I'm so thrilled at Russell's tenaciousness how he charms the journalists whenever we go up there. Scottish journalists are a special, special group of people. Whenever, whenever I come down, they act like an alien has turned up from the moon or something, or from outer space. Why are you here? What are you doing here?

Scottish Labour may be down but they’re not out. The polls have not been moving in their favour over the last few months and on the eve of Labour’s conference in Liverpool a Norstat survey for the Sunday Times brought more bad news: never mind losing out on first place at the 2026 Holyrood election, Scottish Labour could crash into third next year thanks to a surge in support for Nigel Farage’s leaderless tartan outfit. It would be a pretty humiliating state of affairs.  Yet despite all this, the mood in Scottish Labour is oddly buoyant, even upbeat. At the conference’s Scots Night, the Prime Minister made a quick cameo – bouncing into the soulless basement room to inform attendees that, no doubt about it, Anas Sarwar was going to be Scotland’s next first minister.

Today the High Court ordered a company linked to ex-Tory peer Baroness Mone to pay £122 million to the Department of Health for breaching an NHS contract during the pandemic. The company – PPE Medpro – was set up by a group led by the peer’s husband Doug Barrowman. During the pandemic, Mone recommended the company to the government through the ‘VIP lane’ on the same day it was incorporated – fast-tracking it to the top of a priority list for personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts.

At the last Labour conference before the 2026 Holyrood election, Scottish Labour is enjoying the limelight. With less than eight months to go until the Scottish parliament election, the party is trying to prove that – despite its rather dire polling – it can win. But in an increasingly fractured political world, Labour may have to rely on another political party to prop itself up if it is to have any hope of governing in Scotland. And given Nigel Farage's tartan outfit is doing pretty well north of the border, a Labour-Reform pact – informal or not – could be one solution. But would Anas Sarwar do a deal with Reform?

To Liverpool, where politicians and delegates are gathering for Labour's annual party conference. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has just finished his speech on the main stage, where he lead out his vision for his party with just eight months to go until next year's Holyrood elections. But it was a non-Labour politician that dominated Sarwar's discussion today, as Reform UK support in Scotland continues to surge. Slamming Nigel Farage as a 'pathetic and poisonous little man', the Scottish Labour leader fumed: You are a pathetic and poisonous little man that doesn’t care about Scotland, doesn’t understand Scotland, and that’s why Scotland will utterly reject you. All Reform can do is create noise that risks keeping the failing SNP in power.

It would be putting it mildly to say Sir Keir Starmer's digital ID card plans have gone down like a lead balloon. The Prime Minister's proposals to make ID cards compulsory for every British adult have raised concerns about freedom, data security and effectiveness – as it isn't clear the policy would actually work to tackle illegal immigration if it was rolled out. Hardly the best start to conference season… Some of those criticising Starmer over his policy are – surprise surprise – Scottish nationalists. SNP First Minister John Swinney took to Twitter to rage: I am opposed to mandatory digital ID – people should be able to go about their daily lives without such infringements.

After weeks of suspense, the big day has finally arrived. The Scottish government has arranged a meeting in Inverness with quango and industry bosses to discuss what is apparently one of the most pressing issues facing Scotland. Not the future of the oil and gas industry, not the failures in the country's rural health service and not even the dualling of Scotland's most dangerous road, which runs by the city. No – not content with bashing Westminster, the SNP government has declared a war on, er, seagulls. Ahead of today's 'serious' meeting, the Scottish government dedicated £100,000 to controlling the increasingly mischievous bird population to cover gull deterrents – like lasers, roof spikes and anti-nesting nets.

The otherwise run-of-the-mill First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament came to a dramatic conclusion this afternoon. Before the Presiding Officer moved onto the next item of business, former Conservative leader Douglas Ross made a point of order alleging that he had been assaulted by an SNP government minister. Crikey!   He told SNP First Minister John Swinney: ‘As I left the chamber yesterday, I was physically assaulted and verbally abused by your minister for parliamentary business, Jamie Hepburn.’ Ross went on to urge Swinney to confirm he takes ‘a zero-tolerance approach to threatening and intimidating behaviour by his ministers’. Talk about the bare minimum, eh? The incident followed a clash in parliament yesterday over, er, seagulls.