The Snippet: 28th February 2025
Summit against far right, emergency cash for universities and review of arms company funding
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Snippet, your weekly round-up of the top Scottish politics stories written especially for young people.
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👀 ‘Cross-party summit’ against far right
John Swinney has announced a cross-party summit with the hopes of stopping Reform from entering Holyrood. Support for Nigel Farage’s party in Scotland is surging in the polls, with many suggesting the party could pick up seats at next year’s election
In a press conference at Bute House on Wednesday, Swinney said Farage’s views on immigration are “based on a fundamentally racist view of the world”, and that the threat of the “far-right” – in which he included Reform – is real and working across party lines is the only way to fight it
The summit will take place at the end of April and will bring together political leaders and civic society - but it will not result in an electoral pact
Polling expert Professor John Curtice said that the move will help the SNP in the next election by sowing “division amongst the unionists ranks” (Rachel Amery, The Scotsman)
🏴 Scottish Government to review arms company funding
On Wednesday, MSPs debated ending public grants for arms firms linked to Israel through the Government’s commercial agency Scottish Enterprise
The motion, brought forward by the Scottish Greens, ultimately failed - although deputy first minister Kate Forbes said the Scottish Government would review its human rights checks on arms companies getting state support (Hamish Morrison, The National)
Speaking during the debate, former first minister Humza Yousaf said he supported the Greens’ motion, adding: “I agree that not a penny of public funding should be going to arms companies – including those in Scotland – who supply weapons or munitions to Israel” (Humza Yousaf, via Twitter/X)
🎓 Emergency cash for universities
Staff at Dundee University have begun a 15 day strike (every weekday for three weeks) amidst a £30 million black hole in finances and threats of job cuts (Alasdair Clark, The Courier)
During the Scottish Budget stage 3 debate , Finance Secretary (and Dundee MSP) Shona Robison announced a £15 million emergency loan for the sector which the university could get access to - but will have to pay back (Andy Phillip, The Courier)
The Scottish Government’s higher and further education minister, Graeme Day, told MSPs that he expects employees and trade unions to be consulted on the university’s financial recovery plan (Calum Ross, The Scotsman)
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson Michael Marra said that the emergency funding “will not touch the sides” of the financial deficit at Dundee (PA, via STV News)
Elsewhere, Edinburgh University is planning to reduce staff numbers to plug a £140 million gap, which is said to equate to about 10% of the university’s annual turnover. The university declined to confirm the number of staff reductions and whether these will include compulsory redundancies (Nicholas Malizia, Edinburgh Live)
💰 Scottish Budget passes in Holyrood
On Tuesday, the Scottish Budget bill passed its final vote in Holyrood, setting out the Scottish Government’s tax and spending plans for the upcoming financial year
The Greens, LibDems and Alba backed the bill, while Scottish Labour abstained and the Scottish Conservatives voted against it (Andrew Learmonth, The Herald)
After the vote, the First Minister tweeted: “I’m delighted that our Budget has just passed by @ScotParl - with backing from all parties apart from Labour and the Tories. It’s good news for our NHS, for Grangemouth, for tackling child poverty for our economy. We will keep working to deliver progress for all of Scotland”
🌹 Scottish Labour conference
The Scottish Labour party conference took place last weekend in Glasgow, with keynote speeches from both Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer…
The Prime Minister announced £200 million to help secure a new future for the Grangemouth oil refinery ahead of its closure later this year. It comes after the Scottish Government pledged £25 million. You can see the most important bits from Starmer’s speech in the video below 👇
Following the announcement, Scottish Labour leader Sarwar told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “This needs to happen now at pace, and that’s why getting investors around the table, demonstrating both governments are serious about a long-term future for Grangemouth is going to be really important”
Roz Foyer, general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, said the money will need to be “used correctly” if it is to have a “transformative impact” (Katrine Bussey, PA, via Independent)
Anas Sarwar echoed Donald Trump and Elon Musk in his speech by announcing Scottish Labour's own plans for a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The Scottish Labour leader said that he would create the department because of "the SNP's wasteful incompetence" (Andrew Quinn, Daily Record)
Sarwar also said there wouldn’t be an independence referendum in the term of the next Holyrood parliament even if the SNP maintain power (Gregor Young, The National)
A pro-Palestine demonstration took place outside the conference on Saturday, as hundreds of protesters marched through the city towards the venue, accusing the Prime Minister of supporting a genocide in Gaza (Craig Meighan and Leah Flint, The Herald)
👑 Trump invited to ‘unprecedented’ Scotland visit
Keir Starmer is currently on a visit to the US, where he is meeting with president Donald Trump. On Thursday, the Prime Minister handed Trump a letter from King Charles, which invited him to an “unprecedented” second state visit
The King suggested that he and Trump could meet before that visit, either at Dumfries House or Balmoral, which are near Trump’s golf courses in Scotland, to discuss the plans for the bigger state visit
Trump said he accepted the invite and that it would be an "honour" to visit, adding that the King was a “beautiful man, a wonderful man”
🤔 Foreign aid cuts ‘deeply disappointing’
Keir Starmer recently announced that defence spending would rise from 2.3% of GDP to 2.5% by 2027, in response to “tyrant” Russian leader Vladimir Putin and uncertainty over the US’s commitment to European security
He said this will be funded by reducing overseas assistance aid from its current level of 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% in the next two years
(Alexander Brown, Caitlin Doherty, The Scotsman)
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn accused Starmer of following the “populist playbook” by cutting foreign aid in order to increase defence spending (Xander Elliards, The National)
Meanwhile, External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson branded the decision “deeply disappointing”, adding: “This is a time when globally we all need to be stepping up to support the poorest and the most vulnerable communities in the world” (Laura Pollock, The National)
After the Prime Minister’s announcement, John Swinney said the SNP is right to continue its opposition to Trident, the UK’s nuclear programme (Chris McCall, Daily Record)
A leading economist at the Fraser of Allander Institute think tank has warned Scotland’s Budget could face cuts in the coming years as slashing foreign aid won’t be enough to meet the UK’s longer-term target on defence spending (Kathleen Nutt, The Herald)
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