Swinney – Reform voters in Hamilton by-election ‘angry', not racist
The First Minister was asked on the BBC Scotland's Sunday Show if those who backed Reform were 'gullible' or 'racist' – a term the SNP leader has previously used to describe the party.
Mr Swinney said the 7,088 people who backed Reform – more than a quarter of the vote – in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse ballot were 'neither', but were instead 'angry at the cost-of-living crisis'.
He added: 'I think that's what motivates the Reform vote. People have got poorer because of one central thing – Brexit, and the author of that is (Reform UK leader Nigel) Farage.
'I'm standing up to Farage. I'm going to make no apology for it.'
He said the SNP is 'in the process of recovery' and he had come into office as First Minister a year ago 'inheriting some significant difficulties' within the party, and that it needs to get stronger before the Holyrood election in 2026.
He said voters are 'having to work hard for less' and are concerned about public services, particularly the NHS.
Mr Swinney was asked about comments he made prior to the vote saying 'Labour were not at the races' and claiming it was a 'two-horse race' between the SNP and Reform.
Labour's Davy Russell gained the seat from the SNP with 8,559 votes, while SNP candidate Katy Loudon came second on 7,957, ahead of Reform's Ross Lambie.
The First Minister said that since the general election campaign last year, people he has met have pledged never to vote Labour due to the winter fuel allowance being cut, while Reform's support increased.
Mr Swinney said: 'People were telling us on the doorsteps, they were giving us reasons why they weren't supporting Labour. We could also see that Farage's support was rising dramatically and that's happening across the United Kingdom, it's not unique to Hamilton.
'I positioned the SNP to be strong enough to stop Farage, and that's what we were determined to do.'
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has branded the SNP's campaign 'dishonest and disgraceful' and said it had put the spotlight on Reform.
Those comments were put to the First Minister, who said he had previously been allies with Mr Sarwar in a campaign to 'stand up to far-right thinking'.
Mr Swinney said: 'That was months ago and then we found ourselves in the aftermath of the UK local authority elections, the English local authority elections where Farage surged to a leading position and won a by-election south of the border.
'So the dynamic of our politics change in front of us.
'I've been standing up to Farage for months, I've been warning about the dangers of Farage for months, and they crystallised in the rise of Farage during the Hamilton, Stonehouse and Larkhall by-election.'
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STV News
29 minutes ago
- STV News
Nicola Sturgeon tells all about famous names in British politics
Nicola Sturgeon has told all about her experiences with some of the most famous names in British politics in her new memoir, Frankly. Sturgeon was Scotland's longest-serving first minister, having spent more than eight years in the role until she stepped down in 2023. She crossed paths with five UK Prime Ministers during her time in office, led the SNP to victory in eight elections, and led the country through the global Covid-19 pandemic. She has been an MSP since the formation of Scottish Parliament in 1999, but in March she announced she would step back from frontline politics at the 2026 election. In her new memoir, Frankly, which was released on Thursday, Sturgeon tells all about the famous people she's interacted with over the years. Here's what she had to say. Sturgeon spoke very highly about the late Queen Elizabeth II, despite calling herself a republican 'at heart and by instinct'. She said the Queen was an 'extraordinary and incredible' woman who 'loved a bit of gossip', and 'always wanted to hear the stories behind the political headlines'. 'I imagine that every leader who interacted privately with the Queen came to believe that their relationship with her was special. That was one of her qualities,' Sturgeon wrote. Sturgeon met with the Queen biannually, and said she was 'always relaxed and chatty'. 'Conversation would range far and wide. She was incredibly well informed about everything, from the very local to the truly global. Chatting to her was like being given a private window onto all the big events and key personalities of twentieth century history. It was remarkable.' During a meeting at Balmoral Castle, Sturgeon said the Queen also immediately asked for gossip about the Alex Salmond sex allegations weeks after the misconduct claims emerged. 'She wasn't being trivial in any way, but it was clear that she wanted to know more of what was going on,' Sturgeon said. She added: 'There was a mystique around her that no other member of the royal family comes close to having.' Sturgeon said almost all of her interactions with members of the Royal Family had been positive, except for one. Sturgeon said she 'had cause to feel slightly aggrieved' towards Prince William back in 2021. The former first minister said she attended a private meeting with Prince William in 2021, which she described as 'cordial', but emphasised that the pair did not discuss Scottish independence or politics. Sturgeon discovered a few days later that the Prince later held an unpublicised meeting with Gordon Brown. She said the nature of the meeting, in the wake of the former prime minister setting up an 'anti-independence think tank' had 'inevitably raised questions'. She called the explanation from Prince William's office 'disingenuous'. The Prince explained that he had wanted to talk to politicians from across the political spectrum, but Sturgeon said it 'wasn't right' to suggest his discussion with her had provided any balance since they had not discussed politics at all. Sturgeon spoke highly of the famous 007 actor in her memoir, and recounted meeting him amid her bid for SNP leadership in 2014. The former first minister said Sir Sean, who was a long time supporter of the SNP and Scottish independence, 'had charisma in spades'. 'He was physically imposing and even at 74 as he was then, he was strikingly attractive,' Sturgeon said. 'The famous voice with its highly distinctive timbre sounded exactly the same in person as it did on the screen.' In a strange twist, Sir Sean offered Sturgeon tips on sounding more 'authoritative' while speaking. 'Suddenly there I was under the instruction of 007 himself pacing up and down the library of the new club with a folded piece of paper between my teeth, repeating sentences chosen, it seemed for their particular combination of syllables consonants and vowels,' she wrote. 'My lesson in voice projection from Sir Sean Connery and the laughter we shared in the process is an experience I won't forget,' she wrote. She later recalled answering a call from an unknown number after her first outing at First Minister's Questions. 'I immediately thought I was being pranked by someone doing a Sean Connery impression. I wasn't. It was the man himself, still in Edinburgh, saying that he had just watched me on TV and thought the tone and depth of my voice had been perfect. I took that as a win,' she wrote. The Harry Potter author has repeatedly criticised Sturgeon for the SNP government's controversial gender recognition reforms, and Sturgeon wrote that one of Rowling's stunts 'wounded [her] deeply'. In 2022, Rowling shared a photograph of herself wearing a T-shirt calling Sturgeon a 'destroyer of women's rights'. Sturgeon said it was 'entirely legitimate' for people to argue against the gender reform proposals, but said the tactics deployed by some 'suggested that there was another agenda at work'. 'There are many examples I could cite, but the one that attracted the most attention, not surprisingly, was JK Rowling's donning of a T-shirt bearing the slogan: 'Sturgeon, destroyer of women's rights',' she wrote. 'I obviously don't know what her intentions were, but it seems blindingly obvious that a stunt like that was never going to elevate the debate or illuminate the issues at the heart of it.' 'It certainly marked the point at which rational debate became impossible and any hope of finding common ground disappeared.' She added: 'There are few issues I care more about than protecting and advancing women's rights, so to hear myself described as a destroyer of them wounds me deeply.' Sturgeon said David Cameron was 'by some margin the Prime Minister [she] found easiest to deal with'. The former first minister said he 'always appeared to bear the burdens of office quite lightly', but that her relationship with him was 'cordial and constructive'. 'David Cameron was the first of five prime ministers I interacted with during my time in office,' Sturgeon wrote. 'In terms of background and political outlook, he and I had little in common. 'However, by some margin, he was the prime minister I found easiest to deal with. He had an effortless charm, burnished at Eton no doubt, and despite our differences, I liked him. She added: 'Indeed, given some of the characters who came after, I would later feel quite nostalgic about my interactions with Cameron.' Sturgeon said it was 'impossible' to build any genuine rapport with Theresa May. Sturgeon recalled an 'awkward' meeting with the former prime minister where she made a point of admiring the stylish shoes May was wearing. 'Instead of the few moments of ice breaking chat about shoes I had hoped for, a look of horror crossed her face,' Sturgeon wrote. 'For what seemed like an eternity, she said absolutely nothing, staring down at the folder on her lap as if looking for the appropriate 'line to take'.' Sturgeon said the ordeal was 'so awkward' that she vowed never to repeat the exercise. The former first minister said she met May on several other occasions and had 'countless' phone calls, but said the 'these conversations were for [May], no more than a tick box exercise'. 'It was all so frustrating. I felt that instinctively we should have been able to forge a closer relationship,' Sturgeon said. Sturgeon said May lost her sympathy when she went 'too far' in trying to appease the 'treacherous charlatans in her own ranks'. Sturgeon called former prime minister Boris Johnson 'an embarrassment' in her book. She recalled meeting Johnson, who was still the mayor of London, for the first time when he asked her what would it take to 'buy you lot in the SNP off? Would full fiscal autonomy shut you up?'' 'I replied that on the right terms, full fiscal autonomy would certainly be welcome, a step in the right direction, but that it wouldn't 'buy us off' because we believed in independence,' Sturgeon wrote. 'I could sense him struggling to process this strange notion of politicians who actually believed in something!' In the midst of the Covid-19 global pandemic, Sturgeon said Johnson was an 'embarrassment' that seemed 'disengaged and disinterested'. Sturgeon said the former prime minister 'parachuted in for an hour or so in the middle of the second week and was not seen again'. 'It was an abdication of responsibility,' she wrote. 'Whenever he did grace us with his presence, I would be taken aback all over again by how unserious he was.' Sturgeon did not have much time to interact with Rishi Sunak as prime minister, but said she was 'shocked' by how out of touch he was. 'The main opportunity I had to get to know him was at a private dinner he and I had in Inverness in January 2023,' Sturgeon wrote. 'I was shocked by how removed he seemed from the concerns and preoccupations of ordinary people on issues like the cost of living crisis.' Sturgeon had little say about Liz Truss' 'short and ill-fated premiership'. The only interaction she had with Truss was during King Charles' accession ceremony. 'Our communication amounted to barely more than a hello, but it was enough to convince me that building rapport between us would have been an uphill task. Thankfully it was never required,' Sturgeon said. Sturgeon said Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage was 'odious' and 'very insecure'. Ahead of a televised election debate in 2015, Sturgeon said Farage told someone 'quite loudly' about how much alcohol he had consumed. 'I have met him in the flesh only a handful of times and while I found him ever bit as obvious in person as he appeared on TV, it also seemed to me that underneath the bombast is a brittle, fragile ego,' she wrote. 'He seems very insecure, especially around women.' Sturgeon said she never warmed to former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn despite meeting him a few times. 'He exuded the same aura of aloofness and sneering superiority that I have detected in many men on the far left over the years, particularly around women,' she wrote. Nicola Sturgeon said a ten-minute phone call with Donald Trump 'must rank amongst the most absurd' moments of her entire time as first minister. She said the phone call, which took place between Trump's election in 2016 and his inauguration in January 2017, was one of two interactions she had with the US President 'The ten minutes or so that followed must rank amongst the most absurd of my entire time in office,' Sturgeon wrote. The US President invited her to the White House and railed against Scotland's 'obsession' with wind power, the former first minister said. Sturgeon described Donald Trump's defeated political rival, Hillary Clinton, as 'someone [she] had looked up to for a long time'. Sturgeon added she was 'sorry' Clinton wasn't elected as the first female US president. 'When the US finally does elect its first female president – which at the time of writing feels further away than ever – she will owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Hillary Clinton. I am just sorry it couldn't have been her,' Sturgeon wrote. Sturgeon's former friend and mentor turned political rival, Alex Salmond, features heavily in her memoir, and there's a whole chapter dedicated to their complex relationship. Sturgeon insisted she was not the one who had leaked the outcome of the Scottish government investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Salmond to the press. She claimed Salmond, or someone close to him, may have leaked the details himself. Sturgeon also accused Salmond of attempting to 'cast himself as the victim' and being 'prepared to traumatise, time and again, the women at the centre of it all'. She added that Salmond would rather have seen the SNP 'destroyed' than have it succeed without him. 'I was clearly public enemy number one. For a while, I told myself that the bonds between us would be stronger than his thirst for revenge,' she wrote. 'Eventually, though, I had to face the fact that he was determined to destroy me. 'I was now engaged in mortal political combat with someone I knew to be both ruthless and highly effective. 'It was a difficult reality to reconcile myself to. So too was losing him as a friend. I went through what I can only describe as a grieving process. 'For a time after we stopped speaking, I would have conversations with him in my head about politics and the issues of the day. 'I had occasional, but always vivid, dreams in which we were still on good terms. I would wake up from these feeling utterly bereft.' Sturgeon also claims in her book that Salmond had admitted to her that the 'substance' of one of the sexual harassment complaints had been true. The former Alba Party leader was acquitted of all charges relating to the allegations at court in 2020, while a judicial review found the Scottish Government's own investigation of him was tainted with apparent bias. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Graham Linehan: JK Rowling never defended me against trans mob
Graham Linehan, the Father Ted creator, has accused JK Rowling of failing to defend him after a trans backlash derailed his career. The Irish comedy writer, 57, claimed the Harry Potter author's 'silence' over his cancellation made him feel isolated and 'toxic'. Linehan said he initially welcomed Ms Rowling's attacks on the SNP government's self-ID reforms, before accusing her of failing to defend his right to free speech over the trans controversy. In an interview for the Spiked podcast, he claimed Rowling had 'never mentioned me, never said anything in my defence'. He added: 'When she got [involved], I thought, Oh my God, it's over. I can finally relax, I can finally fight back because someone's on my side, you know? 'And now her silence about me is just added to the feeling that, that I've done something wrong, that I'm toxic and I know I am toxic, but it's not because I've done anything wrong. 'It's because of things like that. It's because people, people like JK Rowling won't stand up in defence of me. So it wasn't just the [trans rights activist] side pushing me out. It was a feeling of lack of solidarity and the kind of an embarrassment at my presence in the fight.' Rowling led criticism of SNP attempts to make it easier for biological men to legally change their gender that were dropped following a backlash. She has been in a long-running row over gender with Nicola Sturgeon, the former first minister, who supported plans to increase rights of transgender people. In her new memoir, Ms Sturgeon said she had endured a surge of 'vile' abuse after Ms Rowling posted a selfie in a T-shirt with the slogan: 'Nicola Sturgeon, destroyer of women's rights'. Ms Sturgeon claimed it had made her feel 'more at risk of possible physical harm'. Ms Rowling accused Ms Sturgeon of a shameless denial of reality over transgender issues. In 2023, a comedy show featuring Linehan in Edinburgh was cancelled because of complaints. Leith Arches said it had pulled the gig because it did not support the comedian, and his views did 'not align with our overall values'. Next month, Linehan is due to appear in court after pleading not guilty to harassment and criminal damage against a transgender woman. The writer, who also created The IT Crowd and Black Books, appeared at Westminster magistrates' court in London in May and denied two charges including one of harassing Sophia Brooks, 18, a transgender activist, on social media in October. He is also accused of damaging her phone during the Battle of Ideas conference in London in the same month, at which he was a speaker. The case will go to trial in September. Abuse and threats Linehan said outside court afterwards that he had for six years defended 'the rights of women and children' and had faced abuse and threats. He told Spiked: 'I actually have to come back at the start of next month to go on trial in an absurd case that you'll see just how stupid it is when it happens.' Linehan also commented on the case of Sandie Peggie, a nurse who claims she was subject to unlawful harassment under the Equality Act when she was expected to share a changing room with Dr Beth Upton, a biological man, when she worked at NHS Fife. The case has been adjourned ahead of closing submissions to be heard in September. Linehan said attempts to smear Ms Peggie as a bigot were 'contemptible', adding: 'I think it might be a case that piques some people because it is so shocking that a nurse doing a tough shift on Christmas Eve can't even go to a changing room in peace without a man being there. 'I'm so glad that she has taken the fight on because there's a lot of attention on her and, and on this particular story.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Shabana Mahmood: justice secretary and rising star of the Labour party
Shabana Mahmood knows what it is like to live in an area where crime feels out of control. While she was growing up in Small Heath in inner-city Birmingham in the 1980s and 90s, her father kept a cricket bat behind the till of the family shop to fend off would-be robbers. Three decades later, Mahmood is Labour's justice secretary and lord chancellor, tasked with cutting crime at a time when public concern about it is rising. Though violent crime has fallen steadily over decades, recent increases in highly visible offences including shoplifting and snatch theft have contributed to a feeling of lawlessness and insecurity. Fanning the flames are politicians including Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, and Robert Jenrick, Mahmood's Conservative counterpart, who have sought to draw a link between crime – particularly sexual assault – and immigration. For Mahmood, being the daughter of immigrants is central to her worldview about justice. 'She feels very strongly that being British is a responsibility as well as a right,' a source close to her said. 'She really does feel like it's an affront when people who come here are afforded the welcome that she and her family were, but break the laws of the land.' Another politician shaped by his upbringing as the child of immigrant parents was Rishi Sunak, who felt strongly that it was an injustice for people to arrive illegally in Britain on small boats. Though their backgrounds and politics are very different, Mahmood and Sunak crossed paths at Oxford in the late 90s, with a teenage Sunak pledging his support for Mahmood when she stood for president of the Lincoln college student union. Last week, she received the surprise endorsement of another high-profile Tory: Michael Gove. Asked by the Politics Inside Out podcast to choose this government's standout figure, he replied without hesitation: Shabana Mahmood. Mahmood is a politician with 'a totally coherent worldview' who 'embodies in some respects the Labour coalition', he said. Mahmood has a growing number of admirers inside the Labour party, too. Having been a central figure in the Keir Starmer project from its early days, she is highly rated by No 10 and is thought of as one of its most effective ministers. A cabinet colleague said she 'never wastes a word' in meetings, and recently warned that the government was still caught up in an opposition mindset and preoccupied with taking on the left instead of speaking to the concerns of the country more widely. She has also been a leading advocate for the UK to take a more pro-Palestinian stance, including on statehood. Those who have worked with Mahmood praise her political nous. This year, she emerged unscathed from a clash with Jenrick over new sentencing guidelines that would have made an offender's ethnicity or faith a greater factor when deciding whether to jail them. She forced the Sentencing Council to back down and has ordered a review of its role. Early on, she also clashed with Richard Hermer, the attorney general, amid claims he was obstructing aspects of the government's agenda. Colleagues say the pair get on well personally but come from different traditions. 'Shabana believes, above all else, in parliamentary sovereignty and the value of our common law system. That makes her more of a reformer on things like the ECHR, [European convention on human rights]' a source close to her said. A former Conservative minister said: 'She has much better political antennae than Lord Hermer – she recognises that the law ultimately has to command public confidence.' One source who has worked with her in a previous role said: 'Her instincts are so well honed, it's quite something. It's a product of a number of things, she comes from a very political family and a very febrile political environment in Birmingham.' Her father was chair of the Birmingham Labour party and would host meetings for organisers – including Tom Watson, the future deputy Labour leader – in his living room over tea and samosas. Unusually among politicians, she has spoken about the importance of her faith. 'It is the absolute core of my life,' she told Gove in an interview with the Spectator. 'It's where I draw my sense of duty and public service from. My understanding of Islam, how I've practised Islam my whole life has been about viewing life as a gift from God but it's also a test from God.' 'She is a very defined politician with a real instinct for the times,' said Charlie Falconer, who served as justice secretary under Tony Blair. 'She is somebody who does understand politics in a profound way, and having been the campaign coordinator for Labour for quite some time she knows what has to be done in order to win elections.' Mahmood was elected to parliament in 2010 and within six months was promoted to a shadow frontbench role. In Starmer's shadow cabinet, she spent more than two years as national campaign coordinator, a role in which she became indispensable to the strategy chief, Morgan McSweeney. She is credited for helping secure the narrow but fateful win in the 2021 Batley and Spen byelection, without which Starmer would probably have faced a leadership challenge that summer. In the justice department, she has arguably inherited the most difficult situation of any minister. In her first week, she announced the early release of thousands of criminals in response to the overcrowding crisis in English and Welsh prisons. 'She knows she has got two things she has got to do in the justice department: get it out of this constant cycle of crisis and also use it to actually cut crime,' said the source close to her. She has set out plans for reforming the criminal justice system, which have ranged from chemical castration for serious sex offenders to allowing criminals to spend less time in prison and instead be rehabilitated in the community. She has taken inspiration from Texas, where there is a blend of hardline and progressive measures. 'She's not bowed down by an ideological approach to these things. She can blend some populism in with what are very strong values,' said the person who worked with her in the past. Mahmood's experience of government so far has convinced her of the need to rewire the state and empower elected politicians over officials and quangos. 'Shabana is starting to be seen particularly as a leader of 'if we need to break things, we should break things' … She has come to really believe in the depths of state failure,' one MP close to her said. In a speech in Strasbourg this summer, she announced that the UK would seek reform of the European convention on human rights amid concerns about it being cited to block the deportation of dangerous offenders. The justice secretary has a busy autumn in store, starting with plans to introduce a bill in September to deliver her sentencing reforms including shorter prison sentences for some offenders. Before the end of the year, she intends to set out the other half of her reform agenda to tackle the groaning backlog in crown courts, after a review by Brian Leveson recommended that some offences be tried without a jury. However she performs in government, by the time of the next election Mahmood may face her biggest challenge at home. Her majority in Birmingham Ladywood dropped from nearly 30,000 in 2019 to 3,400 last year after a challenge from a pro-Gaza independent candidate. Zarah Sultana, the independent MP who is starting a party with Jeremy Corbyn, is said to have designs on the seat. Allies of Mahmood say that her challengers face an uphill struggle. 'She is much more deeply embedded in her community than others who lost or came close to losing were,' the source close to her said. In parliament in recent months, Mahmood has hosted dinners with small groups of Labour MPs interested in the reforms she is planning. Some on the backbenches have begun to see her as a future leader. 'If she ever put the hat in the ring, it would be because she wanted the debate to be rigorous and bold and she wanted to be the person who forced that kind of honesty,' the MP close to her said. 'But it tends to be the case that the people who propagate that kind of message don't win.'
