Lucy Dunn

While Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill makes its way through the UK parliament, in Scotland a separate assisted dying bill will be voted on next week. Scottish Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur has put forward legislation that would allow those deemed terminally ill north of the border to take their own lives, with MSPs allowed a free vote on the issue on 13 May. The decision to back the bill is a matter of conscience for parliamentarians. But now, less than a week before decision day, both First Minister John Swinney and his predecessor Humza Yousaf have announced that they will vote against it.

The last twelve months in Britain have seen a general election, leadership contests, council polls, mayoral races and even a parliamentary by-election – and the next year isn’t looking to be much quieter as the Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections loom. The starting gun was fired on the race for Scotland’s Holyrood poll today, as party leaders from all sides of the Chamber took to podiums across the country to make their pitches to the public.  Speaking from Edinburgh this morning, SNP First Minister John Swinney celebrated an anniversary of his own: his first year in the top job, after he replaced his beleaguered predecessor Humza Yousaf in April last year.

The countdown is on, with only a year to go until Scottish voters cast their ballots in the 2026 Holyrood election. This is why SNP First Minister John Swinney has decided to bring forward his Programme for Government – usually held in September – to today, allowing him a full twelve months to deliver on his latest set of commitments before his party’s popularity is put to the test in next year’s poll. Having taken on the top job only a year ago, Swinney has had limited time to turn his vision for Scotland, organised across four clearly-defined priorities, into a reality.

Ash Regan quit Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP government almost three years ago in protest at the former first minister’s controversial gender reform bill. Regan rose to prominence after she left her role as community safety minister over the legislation and then stood, unsuccessfully, to be leader of the party in 2023 after Sturgeon stepped down. Fast forward about six months and Regan ditched the SNP altogether, defecting to the late Alex Salmond’s Alba party. Now, the pro-independence party’s Holyrood leader speaks to The Spectator about the changing state of politics north of the border, the first in a series of special Coffee House Shots episodes in the run-up to the 2026 Holyrood elections.

Tomorrow, voters will go to the polls in Sir Keir Starmer’s first big electoral test as Prime Minister. Across England, there are 1,641 wards, 14 county councils, eight unitary authorities, six mayors and one parliamentary constituency up for grabs. Nine months after coming to power, Labour’s honeymoon period has worn off – and voters turning out tomorrow could make their feelings known. It is the smaller parties which are widely expected to benefit in this set of local polls: namely the Lib Dems and Reform UK. Below are ten races to keep an eye on: West of England mayoral election – expected 2 a.m.

There aren’t many politicians calling for a rise in immigration to Britain at the moment, but you can count on the SNP to be different. Today the party’s Scottish visa bill had its second reading in the sparsely-populated Commons, with sponsor Arbroath and Broughty Ferry MP Stephen Gethins spending 50 minutes elaborately making the case for its passage through parliament. Taking aim at the ‘poisonous’ Reform stance on Britain’s borders, Gethins’ speech dipped between reprimanding Labour for their lack of support and pleading with them to back his call to fully devolve immigration powers to Scotland. Neither carrot nor stick seemed to have much effect.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has made a lot of promises about the NHS. Before he got into power, he talked about slashing bureaucracy, introducing AI and improving patient autonomy. While he claims to have made progress in the last nine months, is it enough?  As Katy Balls and Michael Gove say in their interview with the Health Secretary for this week's issue, Streeting is keen for more ‘responsive and entrepreneurial’ healthcare. He wants a devolved approach that means healthcare services across the country could better deal with local problems in a personalised way.

The Supreme Court has unanimously backed the biological definition of a woman. Women’s rights campaigners across the country are celebrating at the news while author and Sex Matters campaigner Helen Joyce told Spectator TV that she feels ‘vindicated and amazed’ by the decision. But politicians in the Scottish National party won’t be feeling quite as jubilant. As lawyer and lecturer Michael Foran told me on today's episode, what will now happen with the gender bill is down to the Scottish government. With just a year to go until the Scottish parliament elections, letting the trans debate rear its head again could spell trouble for the SNP.  The party has in recent years become embroiled in the trans debate.