Steerpike

Well, well, well. The Scottish Tories have lost a number of councillors to Nigel Farage's ranks and now Labour appears to be facing the same fate. This morning, a former Labour councillor in Fife who left the party over claims she was blocked from becoming a general election candidate has jumped ship to Nige's Scottish operation. Julie MacDougall – the daughter of Gordon Brown ally John MacDougall – is the latest local politician to have joined Reform UK. Another one bites the dust… Commenting on her move, MacDougall claimed she joined Farage's group after 'thoughtful consultation'. She added: I want more grown up, authentic politics and an opportunity to work together to offer better.

Asylum seekers will be removed from the Bell Hotel in Essex after Epping Forest district council was granted a temporary injunction by the High Court. The legal action comes after a series of protestors gathered outside the venue after a resident was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. The council's lawyers claimed that Somani Hotels had breached planning rules, given the site is not being used for its intended purpose. The barristers argued that the situation 'could not be much worse', with Philip Coppel KC adding: 'There has been what can be described as an increase in community tension, the catalyst of which has been the use of the Bell Hotel to place asylum seekers'.

Back to the UK's bloated civil service. As if the government didn't have enough on its plate trying to slash Whitehall red tape, the number of sick days taken by civil servants won't help Sir Keir Starmer's army pick up the pace on progress. Civil servant absences are on track to reach a record high – and the Foreign Office is no exception to the trend. Mr S can reveal the number of sick days taken by FCDO mandarins shot up by more than 50 per cent in the financial year ending March 2024 compared to the previous year – while the number of days lost to mental health issues soared by more than three-quarters.

The SNP's former Dear Leader Nicola Sturgeon released her memoir this week – but it has not quite had the reception she anticipated. The trailed excerpts prompted Alex Salmond's allies to accuse Sturgeon of besmirching her former mentor's name, brought her failed gender reform bill to the fore and confused pro-independence supporters after the Queen of the Nats hinted she was considering a move to, er, London. Now another admission in the 450-page tome has led the Scottish Tories to write to the Scottish Permanent Secretary to examine whether Sturgeon broke the ministerial code.

Well, well, well. Back to Scotland's self-identifying 'newspaper', which has planted itself at the centre of a row over the delisting of a gender critical book from a national library exhibition. Women's rights campaigners flagged concerns after The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht – a selection of gender critical essays – was removed from the National Library of Scotland's Dear Library exhibition, after having been previously selected. The Times ran the initial story, titled 'censorship row as library bans gender-critical book'. The National then took it upon themselves to claim this wasn't true – insisting the National Library had 'debunked' accusations of censorship.

Well, well, well. After Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes announced she was stepping down at next year's Scottish parliament election, speculation about who could stand for her Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency has been rife. Some have suggested that Ian Blackford, the former SNP MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber and onetime Westminster group leader, could make a return to frontline politics by standing for an area he represented down south for almost a decade. So will he make the leap? When quizzed on Spectator TV about whether he would stand at next year's Holyrood election, Blackford did not rule it out – however he remarked: 'It would be a big push for me to get myself there.

They say good things come to those who wait, but Steerpike will let readers be the judge of that when it comes to Nicola Sturgeon's memoir Frankly. The 450-page account by Scotland's former first minister was supposed to be hitting bookshelves on Thursday, but some shops decided to release it ahead of time and Mr S has got his hands on an early copy, reading it so you don't have to. Here are the top lowlights from Sturgeon's new tome… Trans U-turn One of the controversies that, some suggest, prompted her resignation in 2023 was the gender reform bill – and the scandal of double rapist Isla Bryson being housed in a women's prison.

Oh dear. If Scotland's former Dear Leader thought she could have an interview about her legacy that didn't touch on the question of putting male rapists in women's prisons she was sorely mistaken. Nicola Sturgeon has come under fire for a promotional clip ahead of tonight's ITV interview with the ex-SNP leader. In the clip, the former FM is quizzed on her gender reform bill and the scandal that saw the double rapist Isla Bryson – born Adam Graham – initially housed in a women's prison. And yet despite the outrage the case provoked, Sturgeon still couldn't bring herself to call Graham a man in her latest TV interview. Some people never learn, eh?