🏴 Your Party has said it will stand candidates in Scotland in May’s Scottish parliament elections. The move initially outraged Scottish Green supporters worried about YP splitting the left wing vote – though pollsters tell me no one mentions Your Party when quizzed on voting intention.
26.02.2026 12:46 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
NEW: Jeremy Corbyn is set to be parliamentary leader of Your Party after the group’s executive committee elections.
His ‘The Many’ slate won 14 seats, twice as many as Zarah Sultana's ‘Grassroots Left’ slate, which won 7 seats.
The result follows months of infighting between the pair.
NEW: Speaker Lindsay Hoyle confirms in the Commons that he told the police Peter Mandelson was a flight risk on receiving a tip off, ahead of Scottish questions.
‘I felt it was relevant,’ he said. ‘I passed it on in good faith, as is my duty and responsibility.’
Pivotal in the middle of a Scottish election campaign. Scottish Labour MPs privately suggesting that a Starmer resignation now could provide a turning point for the party’s fortunes ahead of May – and ‘beat the current tragic expectations’.
09.02.2026 13:37 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0🏴 NEW: Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is expected to call for Keir Starmer to quit as PM in an emergency 2.30pm press conference.
09.02.2026 13:37 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0There is ‘no appetite’ to do anything before May, a Labour figure says, while another MP adds that ‘timing means limping on’.
04.02.2026 21:21 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0And while the consensus among MPs is that it’s ‘when, not if’ Starmer steps down as PM, it’s not clear that the time is now. The looming Gorton & Denton by-election & the locals/Scottish/Welsh polls in May mean that no one else wants to be held responsible for poor midterms.
04.02.2026 21:21 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Though some Starmer loyalists aren’t convinced that removing the CoS will do much to calm the storm. (‘It would be a twig thrown into a raging river in the hope of making a dam,’ one MP tells me.) Others say that removing McSweeney would be akin to ‘removing his brain’.
04.02.2026 21:21 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney was key in Mandelson’s initial appointment and ‘pleaded’ that the PM not sack him in September. McSweeney’s critics in the party, incl. some in govt, are now calling for him to go (deputy heads will roll etc)
04.02.2026 21:21 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Starmer admitted during PMQs that he had been aware of Mandelson’s persisting friendship with Epstein after the latter’s conviction. His own MPs forced him to let the Intelligence and Security Committee oversee the release of the Mandelson vetting docs (which has now been blocked by the Met).
04.02.2026 21:21 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0🌹 One of Starmer’s worst days as PM and some suggest his premiership could end over it – but is there appetite for a change of leadership right now?
04.02.2026 21:21 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
🏴 Malcolm Offord is Reform’s Scottish leader. Nigel Farage told me last month: ‘I can’t wait for somebody who’s better looking, younger, more intelligent & more articulate than me.’
He clearly sees that in Offord – but with only 5 months between them, his new appointee isn’t all that much younger…
Don't forget to register for tomorrow's webinar 🚨 Trinh Tu, Gideon Skinner, Ben Zaranko and @lucyidunn.bsky.social will be discussing the upcoming Autumn Budget.
Register here👉 bit.ly/49zQzBN
BEYOND THE BUBBLE: The Ipsos Autumn Budget Briefing Webinar 18 November, 12:30 – 13:30
@lucyidunn.bsky.social will join Trinh Tu, Gideon Skinner and Ben Zaranko for our Autumn Budget Briefing webinar. The panel will discuss the potential societal, economic, and political implications of the Chancellor’s upcoming announcement.
Join us on the 18 November 👉https://bit.ly/49zQzBN
🎙️ Spoke with @luketryl.bsky.social on the podcast today about the Green party’s leadership contest, the dynamics between the rivals and why frontrunner Zack Polanski is taking inspiration from Reform ♻️
Listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/4obv...
🎙️ Great to have @markdiffley1.bsky.social on The Spectator’s Coffee House Shots discussing John Swinney’s indyref strategy, who constitutes the group of pro-indy non-SNP voters and if there’s a ceiling to Reform support in Scotland 🏴
👉 open.spotify.com/episode/4wmP...
Some personal news: I am delighted to have been promoted to Political Correspondent at The Spectator.
Drop me an email/message for tips, stories or if you’d like to grab coffee 🗞️
Ash Regan finds Nigel Farage’s ability to ‘shake things up’ refreshing at a time when Scottish politics has become ‘quite dull’: ‘It’s virtue-signalling politics where everyone’s trying to out-compete each other to show how perfect they can be.’
Read here 👇
www.spectator.co.uk/article/ash-...
New: I visited the pub Mike Amesbury drank at before going on to punch a constituent. The barman and locals explain how they voted in Thursday’s by-election… and what they actually think of Reform 🍻
www.spectator.co.uk/article/now-...
Invaluable election day guide from @lucyidunn.bsky.social: key timings, contests and narratives shaping up
www.spectator.co.uk/article/your...
🎙️ Was great to host today’s Coffee House Shots podcast with Spec Econ Editor Michael Simmons and More in Common’s Luke Tryl – on the Chancellor’s plans in Washington and how big a part the economy will play in next week’s local elections 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/2TfI...
💥 NEW: Since Keir Starmer’s Labour party swept to victory last summer, the new government’s DfT has logged 76 mobiles as missing while eight have been reported stolen – a rate of more than two a week 👇
www.spectator.co.uk/article/loui...
🏴 Are the Scottish Tories becoming irrelevant?
Wednesday's Survation poll suggested the group could be halved at next year's election – and they don't yet have a Reform-specific strategy as support for Farage's party continues to rise in Scotland
www.spectator.co.uk/article/are-...
Great to be in The Spectator magazine this week on the rise of physician associates in the NHS 🏥
While there are areas where overworked clinicians would be desperate for extra help, there is no future for a health service that sees PAs acting like doctors
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...
🏴 On The Spectator’s Coffee House Shots podcast today discussing former first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s news that she will stand down as an MSP in 2026
🎙️ Can listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/6iMl...
I was in Hull last night for the unveiling of Reform’s new mayoral candidate: ex-Olympian Luke Campbell
‘It’s with his earnest, straightforward style that Campbell will endear voters to him. Certainly on the policy front, the boxer is much less well-versed’ 👇
www.spectator.co.uk/article/can-...
The system that allocates UK med students to foundation jobs is in desperate need of change. Punishing medics by sending them across the country against their will won’t improve retention
Blog on how the recruitment process has left medical grads disillusioned 👇
www.spectator.co.uk/article/juni...
The SNP may be outperforming Scottish Labour in the polls, but the party of government still faces tough questions on its record as it approaches the Holyrood election – not least given the widening deprivation gap
Blog on this week’s education figures 👇
www.spectator.co.uk/article/scot...
so much for Trump’s 4% claim
19.02.2025 16:47 — 👍 185 🔁 49 💬 6 📌 4
The Scottish Tories lose a sixth councillor to Reform – and the Farage-led group claims it now has 9,000 members north of the border
Meanwhile Scottish Labour is performing poorly in polls and politics professor John Curtice warns RefUK will split unionist vote
www.spectator.co.uk/article/refo...
