The Snippet: 31st January 2025
Scottish Budget set to pass, Rosebank challenge success, and more MSPs to step down...
Welcome to the third edition of The Snippet, your weekly round-up of the top Scottish politics stories.
It’s been a busy week! Don’t forget to give this a share if you like what you read. Thanks for reading, and have a lovely weekend.
💰 Scottish Budget set to pass
The Scottish Budget looks set to pass after the Greens and LibDems announced their support - in exchange for an extension on free school meals and a £2 bus fare pilot. The vote on the Budget will take place next month (Rachel Amery, The Scotsman)
Sources inside the Scottish Greens have said the party has handed “ammunition to Reform on a silver plate” following their support, with some members left “very disappointed” (Hannah Brown, The Herald)
Since ending the Bute House Agreement (and therefore becoming a minority government), the SNP need the support of at least two opposition MSPs to pass the Budget. The Scottish Greens have seven MSPs, while the Scottish LibDems have four. Scottish Labour have already confirmed they will abstain on the vote.
👩 SNP bring Waspi vote in Westminster
On Tuesday, Westminster voted in favour of the SNP’s bill to establish a compensation scheme for women affected by changes to the state pension age. SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn was given permission by MPs to introduce the Women’s State Pension age (Ombudsman report and compensation scheme) Bill to the Commons for further consideration.
The vote was viewed as a symbolic show of support for the compensation proposal. This is because private members’ bills introduced by MPs face a battle to become law if they don’t receive Government support.
(Richard Wheeler, PA, via Independent)
Ahead of the vote, Flynn wrote to every MP calling for their support, saying it was “essential for justice, and trust in politics, that MPs keep – not break – their promises to Waspi women” (Xander Elliards, The National)
The Commons voted 105 to zero, majority 105. The bill was backed by just 10 Labour MPs and only one Scottish Labour MP, Brian Leishman, who represents Alloa and Grangemouth. Ahead of the vote, Leishman encouraged his Labour colleagues to "do the right thing" and support the bill (Andrew Quinn, Daily Record)
On Thursday, cross-party MSPs sent a joint letter to Keir Starmer calling for compensation for Waspi women. The letter was written by Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville and was co-signed by Greens co-leader Lorna Slater and LibDems leader Alex Cole-Hamilton. The letter was not signed by Scottish Labour or the Scottish Conservatives. (Xander Elliards, The National)
🛢️ Legal challenge against oil and gas fields successful
The approvals of the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields have been quashed by the Court of Session in Edinburgh. On Thursday, the court ruled that the previous Conservative government’s approvals for the fields were unlawful due to their failure to assess the climate impact of downstream emissions.
Both developments must be reconsidered will full environmental assessments, and no extraction can take place until new assessments that consider the environmental impact of burning fuels extracted are submitted.
However, construction for the Rosebank oil field north-west of Shetland and the Jackdaw gas field off Aberdeen can continue.
The legal action was raised by environmental groups Greenpeace and Uplift. Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, hailed the ruling a “significant win”, while Lauren MacDonald from the Stop Rosebank campaign said the oil companies behind the field - Equinor and Ithaca Energy - “do not have Scotland’s interests at heart” (Gabriel McKay, The Herald)
The Scottish Greens’ climate spokesperson, Mark Ruskell MSP, called the decision “a crucial ruling for people and planet” (via Scottish Greens)
Meanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives have slammed the court’s ruling. The party’s spokesperson for net zero and energy, Douglas Lumsden, told LBC’s Gina Davidson it is a “disastrous decision” which is “bad news for the whole of Scotland” - particularly the north east.
☂️ Storm Eowyn continues to impact Scotland
The impact of last week’s storm continues to be felt across the country. One person was killed during the storm - 19-year-old Calum Carmichael, who was driving on the B743 near Mauchline, East Ayrshire when a tree fell onto his blue Ford Focus at around 6.45am last Friday. His family has paid tribute to him as “the most loved and happiest man alive” (Craig Meighan, PA, via The Scotsman)
On Thursday, power companies confirmed all properties in Scotland left without electricity following Storm Eowyn have now been reconnected (Isla Storie, Daily Record)
Speaking at an event in Edinburgh on Monday, the First Minister said Storm Eowyn is a “warning that climate change is with us” (James Walker, The National)
Some good news: Glasgow City Council has said the historic Darnley Sycamore tree which was feared to have been completely destroyed during Storm Eowyn could grow back. The council’s botanics team has also taken cuttings of the tree with the hope of eventually being able to plant them (Nicole Mitchell, Glasgow Times)
🗣️ FMQs - all about the NHS
John Swinney was pressed on NHS recovery and a third Heathrow runway during First Minister’s Questions on Thursday (BBC live blog)
Both Scottish Labour and Conservative leaders attacked the FM’s NHS announcements on Monday - where he pledged to reduce NHS waiting lists and make it easier to get GP appointments (Hannah Brown, The Herald)
Meanwhile, Swinney welcomed the support of opposition parties for the Budget and said “Scotland doesn’t take Anas Sarwar seriously” after the Scottish Labour leader said Scotland needs “a new government and a new direction” (James Walker, The National)
🏥 Calls for Health Secretary to resign fail
Speaking of health, a Holyrood vote calling for Health Secretary Neil Gray to resign failed on Wednesday. The Scottish Conservatives tabled an amendment to a motion proposed by Scottish Labour on the NHS workforce, calling on Gray to resign.
The Health Secretary has been battling with winter pressures, poor performance in the NHS in recent months and criticism over taking Government-owned cars to football games - although he has retained the confidence of the First Minister.
The amendment fell by 51 votes to 68 with one abstension (Alba’s Ash Regan), while the original motion was defeated by 61 votes to 53 with seven abstensions.
👀 Trump doesn’t ‘give a sh**’ about Scotland
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has said Donald Trump “will start shitting on Scotland” if the SNP Government attracts his attention.
Speaking to the Holyrood Sources podcast, he said Trump “honestly doesn’t give a shit” about Scotland and that “he’ll hurt your First Minister if he gets too close to him or even tries to have a relationship with him”.
(Holyrood Sources / Andrew Learmonth, The Herald)
🗳️ MSPs announce plans for Holyrood 2026
Another flurry of MSPs have announced they won’t be standing at the next Holyrood election in 2026…
Richard Lochhead, SNP MSP for Moray (Justin Bowie, Press and Journal)
Joe FitzPatrick, SNP MSP for Dundee City West (Alasdair Clark, The Courier)
Michelle Thomson, SNP MSP for Falkirk East (Kirsteen Paterson, Holyrood Magazine)
Alongside these MSPs, we know of seven others who have said they will not stand in 2026: the SNP’s Humza Yousaf, Christine Grahame, Ruth Maguire, James Dornan and Elena Whitham, Scottish Conservative MSP Oliver Mundell and Independent (formerly SNP) MSP John Mason (Rachel Amery, The Scotsman)
🇬🇧 Former Reform Scotland chief quits party
Reform UK’s ex-leader in Scotland has quit the party after it emerged she was the administrator of a Facebook page featuring racist and far-right posts.
Michelle Ballantyne, a former Scottish Conservative MSP and leadership candidate who left the party in 2020 before joining Reform UK in 2021, accused Reform of orchestrating a “witch hunt” against her.
She had initially been suspended from the party while an investigation was being carried out into the Facebook group.
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