John Swinney emerges as favourite to become leader of party hit by series of damaging crises
Humza Yousaf has quit as Scotland’s first minister to clear the way for a new leader capable of giving the Scottish National party stability after a series of damaging crises.
During a dramatic day largely orchestrated by party managers, Yousaf announced he would step down as first minister just as a veteran former leader, John Swinney, quickly emerged as the favourite to succeed him.
Continue reading...Previous contest exposed splits on issues such as LGBTQ+ rights and green policy that next leader must tackle
When Humza Yousaf was narrowly elected leader of the SNP last March, it was after a bruising leadership contest that exposed profound divisions in the party over LGBTQ+ rights, Westminster’s veto of Holyrood law, and environmental and economic policy.
Indeed, it could be said the end of the SNP’s partnership with the Greens, and the downward spiral of chaos that ended with Yousaf’s resignation little over a year later, was telegraphed by the fault lines that emerged back then, setting the scene for the myriad conflicts that Yousaf was forced to manage – and ultimately failed to resolve – as leader.
Continue reading...As the Scottish National party leader announces his resignation, we look at likely successors
Any contest to replace Humza Yousaf will present the Scottish National party with a significant problem: it has very few contenders with the experience and profile voters would expect to lead the Scottish government.
Continue reading...Prime minister dismisses potential deal with Dublin, increasing prospect of an escalating UK-Irish crisis
Rishi Sunak has said the UK will not accept the return of asylum seekers from Ireland and dismissed the prospect of a deal with Dublin.
The prime minister doubled down on his Rwanda deportation plan and appeared to reject any deal with the Irish government, which is alarmed at asylum seekers entering the republic from Northern Ireland.
Continue reading...Public opinion ‘overwhelmingly in favour of change’, says broadcaster as MPs debate law in Commons
Jonathan Dimbleby has urged MPs to “get off the fence” on the issue of assisted dying and said public opinion is “overwhelmingly in favour of change”.
After his younger brother, Nicholas, died with debilitating motor neurone disease earlier this year, Dimbleby said the current law was “anachronistically cruel”.
Continue reading...US secretary of state says Hamas is the ‘only thing standing between people of Gaza and ceasefire’
The US secretary of state has said that “the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire” is Hamas, ahead of what are seen as last-chance talks to salvage a diplomatic solution before a threatened Israeli ground invasion in Rafah.
Speaking at a World Economic Forum meeting in Saudi Arabia on Monday, Antony Blinken said: “Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel.
Continue reading...When Bryn Austin, 71, lost his bearings on an unstable cliff his favourite paper kept him warm and helped start fire to alert rescuers
Bryn Austin always carries a copy of the Guardian when he goes looking for rocks, usually to wrap up muddy or delicate specimens. But on one ill-fated trip, he discovered a new application for his favourite newspaper.
The retired geologist, 71, had taken a walk to Fairlight Glen in East Sussex to study a landslide on the evening of 24 April. After a wrong turn, he became stranded in the dark on the face of a cliff prone to erosion.
Continue reading...Clinicians say crackdown on people eligible for Pip payments does not address UK’s long-term sickness problem
Mentally ill, sick and disabled people are being used as a “political football” to make the government seem tough rather than addressing the causes of the UK’s growing long-term sickness problem, campaigners have warned, as ministers unveiled tentative proposals to cut disability benefits.
Potentially thousands of people claiming personal independence payment (Pip) could lose the benefit – currently worth between £29 and £184 a week – under changes designed to tighten eligibility and, where possible, replace monthly cash payments with one-off vouchers or access to specialist support.
Continue reading...Thomas O’Halloran was stabbed in west London by Lee Byer who had paranoid schizophrenia and had been released five days before
A man has admitted to the manslaughter by diminished responsibility of an 87-year-old mobility scooter rider in a “motiveless” knife attack in west London five days after being released from prison.
Lee Byer, 45, stabbed Thomas O’Halloran in the neck and chest in Greenford in 2022. It can now be reported that Byer had numerous previous convictions and days earlier had been released from Wormwood Scrubs prison in south-west London.
Continue reading...Caitlyn Scott-Lee, 16, is thought to have taken her own life the day before she was due to have her first ever detention
The father of an autistic schoolgirl who is believed to have taken her own life the day before she was due to have her first ever detention has paid tribute to his “daddy’s girl” at the inquest into her death.
Caitlyn Scott-Lee, 16, was found dead at Wycombe Abbey, a private school in Buckinghamshire where she boarded, on 21 April last year.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
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