Scotland

The launch of the Labour party’s new green energy mission did not go to plan. The party had promised to ferry journalists to the venue in a hydrogen-powered bus, only for this to be quickly replaced with a diesel alternative on the day. To make matters worse, the bus driver then got lost on route, twisting and turning his way through the narrow streets of Leith. Only after several U-turns, and some helpful directions from a generous journalist, did the bus eventually chug its way – much delayed – to the location of Starmer’s great launch. As a metaphor for the Labour party’s energy policy, you would be hard pressed to find something more apt.

Boris Johnson’s dwindling brigade of supporters point to the Conservatives’ landslide election win of 2019 as evidence he’s too gifted a politician for his party to lose. But they conveniently ignore the fact his charm stopped working at the border with Scotland. Voters across much of England may have flocked to Johnson but he repelled many Scots. In 2019, the SNP won back 13 of the 21 seats it had lost two years previously, when Theresa May was prime minister. The Tories lost seven Scottish seats. There is a particular caricature of the distant, uncaring Conservative that repels Scottish voters. And that caricature is Boris Johnson-shaped.

One of the most wonderful things about walking around Oxford at this time of year is seeing hordes of young people celebrating the end of exams: finals, A-levels. GCSEs. Hundreds of miles north in Scotland, younger students may soon have another reason to celebrate altogether: the end of National 5 qualifications. An imminent review of secondary Scottish assessment is widely anticipated to recommend ditching exams for 15 and 16 year olds, and replacing National 5 qualifications (the Scottish equivalent to GCSEs) with a new system. Under the new proposals, students would be judged on coursework alongside a Scottish ‘diploma’ which recognises extra-curricular activities, sport and volunteering.

Just when they thought they were out of the woods, the SNP have been pulled right back in. Following Nicola Sturgeon’s sensational arrest on Sunday, reports have emerged that First Minister Humza Yousaf is willing to exhaust all options in a bid to get his party under control — and has gone so far as to tell his MSPs to back Sturgeon or quit the party. No Privileges Committee investigation for her to worry about… There’s only so many times a First Minister can be called ‘weak’ before he snaps. Three separate sources have told the Times that, at a private meeting in Holyrood, Yousaf issued veiled threats to his politicians, primly reminding them that they were expected to publicly support his decision to allow Sturgeon to retain the whip.

‘Bizarre’ is a high bar in Scottish politics these days, but the SNP has comfortably cleared it once again. The party's deputy leader Keith Brown revealed Nationalist MSPs have agreed to ‘send some flowers’ to Nicola Sturgeon ‘as a mark of sympathy, given what she has been through over recent days’.  Sturgeon was arrested on Sunday by police investigating allegations of financial misconduct. She was released without charge after seven hours. Her husband, and former SNP chief executive, Peter Murrell and the party’s ex-treasurer Colin Beattie were previously arrested and similarly released without charge.  The bouquet is a nice gesture from the SNP group, but Mr Steerpike wonders what they’re going to do about a card.

Despite calls for Sturgeon to be suspended from the party, Humza Yousaf has said today that he will not do so, telling BBC Scotland that he sees 'no reason' to suspend a party member who has been released without charge. Not all SNP politicians agree with him, though. Angus MacNeil, the MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, tweeted yesterday: ‘This soap opera has gone far enough, Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for an awful lot less! Time for political distance until the investigation ends either way.’ Michelle Thomson, the SNP MSP who was suspended herself despite never being under police investigation, has called on Sturgeon to ensure her values are ‘consistent’ – and to resign the party whip after her arrest.

The arrest of Nicola Sturgeon by police investigating allegations of fraud within the SNP was hardly unexpected. After all, her husband – the party’s former chief executive, Peter Murrell – and the SNP's past treasurer, Colin Beattie MSP, have already spent time helping officers with their enquiries. It was only a matter of time until the cops got to Sturgeon.  Nonetheless, the shock of news – broken in a tweet from Police Scotland at 2.29pm on Sunday afternoon – that she was in custody as a suspect was undiminished.  Until her surprise resignation as SNP leader – and, thus, first minister of Scotland – in February, Sturgeon was widely considered one of the pre-eminent political figures of her generation.

Not so very long ago, Scotland’s nationalist minority was mustering behind a catastrophic plan to treat the next general election as a 'de facto' referendum. Having over-promised for years about her ability to deliver a second vote on the constitution, former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon declared that a majority of votes for pro-independence candidates would give her the green light to open secession talks with whoever was prime minister. 'Hurrah!' cheered nationalists, 'This is a brilliant idea.' Then Sturgeon resigned amid a police investigation into her party and was succeeded by Humza Yousaf, who declared he was not in favour of Sturgeon’s 'de facto' referendum idea. No matter the concessions Westminster makes, the nationalists cry betrayal 'Hurrah!

Almost a decade on from Scottish Labour’s 2015 general election wipe out, a spectre is once again haunting the party in Scotland – the spectre of Ed Miliband. Apparently not content with his role in leading the party to near oblivion in Scotland eight years ago, the shadow secretary of state for climate change and net zero is now determined to stifle its recovery as well. Miliband’s latest manoeuvres began more than a week ago, when he engineered an announcement that a future Labour government would not grant any new licences for oil and gas production in the North Sea. The announcement caused consternation not just from the industry itself, but also the Scottish Labour party, which was infuriated with its timing and largely blindsided by the policy shift.