Lucy Dunn is The Spectator's political correspondent. She is a qualified doctor from Glasgow.
It’s that time of year again: GERS day – when Scotland’s annual fiscal health is laid bare – has come back around and the figures paint a pretty bleak picture for the Scottish government. There is a £26.5 billion black hole in public finances (don’t fall off your chair, Rachel Reeves) while the country’s deficit
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There has been a drip feed of stories over the past few days from Nicola Sturgeon’s memoir Frankly which hits the shelves this week. In her book, the former First Minister of Scotland covers a slew of topics including SNP infighting and her relationship with the late Alex Salmond, her sexuality and the police probe
Nicola Sturgeon isn’t someone for whom oversharing comes naturally. Throughout her career, she has regularly been labelled ‘dour’ or ‘frosty’ by both her opponents and those on her own side. As her profile grew through the 2010s, so did her popularity among the SNP’s expanding membership – and in her first week of being party
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Another day, another Reform party press conference. Following political editor Tim Shipman’s cover piece on how Reform hopes to win over women, this morning’s event was led by the party’s top female politicians: MP Sarah Pochin, Greater Lincolnshire Mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Westminster councillor Laila Cunningham, and Linden Kemkaran, the leader of Kent County Council.
Kate Forbes’s announcement on Monday that she would be standing down as an MSP next year caught most people – her political allies, former backers, current colleagues – by surprise. She decided to make her intentions clear a few days prior to her attendance at the Edinburgh Fringe festival, where she was set to be
Nicola Sturgeon may be stepping down as an MSP next year, but that doesn’t mean she’s done with Scottish politics. Instead it seems like her 32-year-old mini-me, Màiri McAllan, is being primed by the former first minister and her allies to become the party’s future leader. The remarkable similarities between the pair suggest Sturgeon sees a little
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Nigel Farage hosted a press conference today as part of Reform’s summer crime campaign ‘Britain is lawless’. He unveiled the latest Tory defector: Leicestershire’s Police & Crime Commissioner Rupert Matthews. Amidst all the noise of whether crime in the UK is falling or not, plus the impact of migration on crime, is Reform’s messaging cutting
A year is a long time in politics. Just over 12 months ago, Kate Forbes MSP was made Deputy First Minister of Scotland when John Swinney took the reins from Humza Yousaf. This morning, with less than a year to go until the 2026 Holyrood election – and after the SNP had finalised its candidate
Senior Tories are floating the idea of an electoral pact with Nigel Farage’s Scottish outfit It’s not a good time to be a Scottish Conservative. While the SNP has seen a bounce in the polls – despite the infighting that followed Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation and the Operation Branchform police probe – the Tories and Labour
Today, Green party members can begin voting for their next party leader – or leaders – as ballots in the leadership contest have now opened. Voting will take place across the month before ballots close on 30 August with the result to be announced on 2 September, just a month before the party heads to
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The dispute between the British Medical Association (BMA) – a trade union for doctors – and the government continues, following the five-day strike by junior doctors. Doctors argue that pay is still far below relative levels from almost two decades ago, combined with the cost of study, the cost of living and housing crises, as
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Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney unveiled his strategy for pursuing a second independence referendum this week, arguing that an SNP majority at next year’s Holyrood elections is the only way to guarantee it. This is seen as an attempt to put Scottish independence back on the table as well as combat the rising popularity of
Tumult, turmoil, chaos: select as appropriate how best to describe the last two years for the Scottish National party. Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation, the infighting that followed and the infamous Operation Branchform police probe caused public trust in the party of government to plummet. Fast forward through the gaffe-a-day leadership of Humza Yousaf and current First
As Keir Starmer prepared to meet Donald Trump at his Scottish golf course this afternoon, Nigel Farage kept himself busy with another ‘Lawless Britain’ press conference in London. (‘I had dinner with Donald Trump Junior the other week,’ he said to reporters asking if he had been able to secure an audience with the US
It’s often the rotator blades of Marine One that blare over Donald Trump’s voice as he stands near the helipad on the south lawn of the White House. In Turnberry, Scotland, it was bagpipes. Trump, playing host to the British Prime Minister in Britain, performed his now familiar ingratiation ritual as he welcomed Sir Keir and
The UK has finally signed a free-trade deal with India after three-and-a-half years of negotiation. The agreement will open up trade for cars, whisky, clothing and food products, with ministers claiming it will boost the British economy by £4.8 billion. For Keir Starmer, it offers much-needed economic and political good news. For Indian prime minister
The Commons is closing down for the summer, but Kemi Badenoch has treated us to a shadow cabinet reshuffle. At the beginning of the year, Badenoch’s team were keen to stress stability, dismissing talk of an early reshuffle. But, as so often in politics, events have forced her hand. Ed Argar, the shadow health secretary,
Despite Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s efforts, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced this afternoon that the doctors’ strikes are on. From 7 a.m. this Friday until 7 a.m. next Wednesday, medics across England will stage a walkout – the first of Keir Starmer’s premiership – over pay disputes. The announcement by the doctors’ union
In just a few days, doctors across England will stage strikes for five days. Hospitals are preparing for staff shortages from Friday until next Wednesday, hoping that bulked-up locum rates will attract enough ‘scabs’ to mitigate the walkouts. But now the BMA has taken aim at NHS bosses, warning that the decision not to cancel
As the 2026 Holyrood election looms, parties are scrambling to get their candidate lists finalised. Today the Scottish Greens have released their regional list names – with some rather interesting selections amid party splits. One of the most significant decisions sees the current MSP for the North East region, Maggie Chapman, demoted on the list
