Scottish Tories says SNP "in total meltdown", and urge Yousaf to stop defending Sturgeon and show he is "his own man" Humza Yousaf has finished now. Meghan Gallacher, the deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, says the SNP is in “total meltdown”. She claims that Yousaf will not suspend SNP figures involved in the affairs being investigated by the police because they are his mentors. UPDATE: Gallacher said: The first minister makes this statement today as scandal continues to engulf his party. The SNP is in total meltdown. Its former chief executive and now its treasurer have been arrested amid a police investigation into the party’s finances. And leaked footage has shown Nicola Sturgeon trying to shut down scrutiny mere months before the investigation began. Yet Humza Yousaf is so indebted to his former mentors that he will not do the right thing and suspend them while the investigation is ongoing. It is high time that Humza Yousaf tackled this scandal head on and proved to the Scottish public that he has his own man, instead of defending and deflecting from his predecessor’s tarnished legacy. Afternoon summary Scotland’s new first minister, Humza Yousaf, has set out a “fresh vision” for his next three years in government that delays, redraws or reverses a number of his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon’s key policies. But, as Libby Brooks reports, opposition leaders said any attempt at a relaunch had been “utterly torpedoed” by the arrest earlier on Tuesday of the SNP treasurer, Colin Beattie, amid the ongoing police investigation into the party’s funding and finances. The senior Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood has accused the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, of concealing a potential Russian “act of war” against an RAF spy plane, during an emergency debate in the Commons. The energy secretary, Grant Shapps, has urged Ofgem to turn words “into action” to ensure new industry rules designed to protect vulnerable people from being forced on to prepayment meters are properly enforced. The government is considering issuing guidance to single-sex schools in England saying that they cannot be legally obliged to take transgender pupils, as part of advice to be released this term. Ministers ignored advice that would have stopped prisoners dying during Covid pandemic, MPs told Ministers have not done enough to prevent deaths of prisoners in England and Wales, an independent reviewer has said. Juliet Lyon, the chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody until January this year, said ministers had ignored advice which would have helped to protect detainees during Covid, and the current state of prisons was “awful”. Giving evidence to the Commons justice committee this afternoon, Lyon was asked if the government had done enough to protect prisoners during the Covid pandemic. She replied: No ... They made a very rapid choice, as you know, to lock everyone down as their best way of trying to keep people safe. There were other choices that could have been made. She said there had been talk of releasing 4,000 vulnerable prisoners during the pandemic, but in fact only 262 were released. Lyon said ministers ignored strong clinical advice that there should have been universal vaccination in prisons, as happened in care homes, because it was “not considered politically palatable”. She told the committee: That was a real revelation to me that ministers couldn’t accept the advice that was coming from every quarter because they feared that the public wouldn’t find it acceptable. I don’t believe that was a good enough reason to put people’s lives at risk. The deprivations that happened particularly during Covid and the extreme imprisonment and the choices that were made to hold people in isolation, have ... continued in some shape or form. Lyon suggested it would “concentrate minds” if ministers were made to apologise to families bereaved as a result of a death in custody. Ending her evidence to the committee on a sombre note, she said: Until and unless the prison service is able to be properly staffed and properly resourced and seen as a really important public service, with all that that involves, it’s really difficult for them to keep people safe. DUP says Chris Heaton-Harris sounded like "clueless Irish American" in "patronising" speech on unionism The DUP has just sent out a statement accusing Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, of being “patronising” and sounding like “a clueless Irish American congressman” in his speech this morning. (See 10.27am.) Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, was implicitly critical earlier (see 5pm), but DUP HQ has now sent out a formal response, in the form of a statement from the DUP MP Gavin Robinson. Robinson says: The [Northern Ireland Office’s] approach today has been patronising towards unionist concerns and stands in contrast to their approach when Sinn Féin blocked devolved government for three years over the Irish language. The government must realise that getting the foundations right, supported by unionists as well as nationalists, rather than personal attacks and blackmail will restore Stormont. The secretary of state’s rhetoric for the [Queen’s University Belfast] audience was more akin to a speech by a clueless Irish American congressman rather than a UK government cabinet minister. This is about taking our time to get it right. We need stable and sustainable devolved government. For those who have forgotten, over the last 25 years, political progress in NI was hard won and is built on the foundation of support from unionists and nationalists. Not one unionist MLA supported the NI protocol and that was the critical mistake. There is no solid basis for an executive and assembly until we have arrangements that restore NI’s place in the UK internal market and our constitutional arrangements are respected. DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson implies his party will ignore appeals from "the great and the good" to restore power sharing Many leaders who have been in Belfast for events to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement have been urging the DUP to resume power sharing. The US president, Joe Biden, made that point last week as diplomatically as he could. Yesterday George Mitchell, who chaired the talks leading up to the Good Friday agreement, made a moving appeal for compromise. Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, was more explicit this morning (see 10.27am), although he never referred directly to the DUP in his speech. But Sir Jeffrey Donaldon, the DUP leader, says his party will not respond to lectures from “the great and the good”. He has tweeted a message implying his party will continue its boycott of Stormont until it gets further assurances on power sharing. Ben Wallace accused of concealing Russian ‘act of war’ against RAF plane Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chair of the Commons defence committee, has accused the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, of concealing a potential Russian “act of war” against an RAF spy plane. Ellwood made the point during a Commons urgent question earlier. Dan Sabbagh has the story. Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, told MSPs that Humza Yousaf’s relaunch had been “utterly torpedoed”. He also said Yousaf “already looks like a defeated man”. In his speech to MSPs, as well as announcing a delay to the introduction of the deposit return scheme (see 2.46pm) and a review of plans to restrict alcohol advertising (see 2.46pm), Humza Yousaf mentioned two other departures from Nicola Sturgeon policy. He confirmed that a vote on the national care service bill was being delayed again, until the autumn. And he said that Scotland would be rejoining two international schemes allowing educational outcomes to be compared across countries. This is from ITV Border’s Peter MacMahon. Yousaf "not now running functioning government", says Scottish Labour Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, goes next. He says Yousaf “is not running a functioning government”. He goes on: “This is an SMP that is mired in scandal, mired in division.” The current scandal is a consequence of 16 years of command and control, and “lack of transparency”. Yousaf criticises Sarwar for not asking about policy. He says Sarwar is a “master of the soundbite”, but “vacuous”. He says a Keir Starmer administration would be “a pale immitation of a Tory government”. UPDATE: Sarwar said: What Humza Yousaf can’t escape from is that he is not now running a functioning government. This is an SNP that is mired in scandal, mired in division, talking to themselves about themselves. And the crisis that now engulfs the SNP is not just an indication of how they govern their party, but also how they govern our country. A 16-year culture of command and control, of financial mismanagement, and a lack of transparency, meaning secrecy and cover-ups, often with devastating consequences. And no amount of spin or the pretence of a reset or a fresh start is going to hide what is now becoming clearer to the public every single day. Our country is now crying out for leadership, for hope, for new ideas and a new vision to confront the twin crises our nation faces – a cost of living crisis … and an NHS crisis. Continuity won’t cut it. Incompetence has consequences. And, frankly, Scotland deserves better. Yousaf tells Gallacher that it is brave of her to talk about propriety. He says her PM, her deputy PM and her former PM are all under investigations over standards. Scottish Tories says SNP "in total meltdown", and urge Yousaf to stop defending Sturgeon and show he is "his own man" Humza Yousaf has finished now. Meghan Gallacher, the deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, says the SNP is in “total meltdown”. She claims that Yousaf will not suspend SNP figures involved in the affairs being investigated by the police because they are his mentors. UPDATE: Gallacher said: The first minister makes this statement today as scandal continues to engulf his party. The SNP is in total meltdown. Its former chief executive and now its treasurer have been arrested amid a police investigation into the party’s finances. And leaked footage has shown Nicola Sturgeon trying to shut down scrutiny mere months before the investigation began. Yet Humza Yousaf is so indebted to his former mentors that he will not do the right thing and suspend them while the investigation is ongoing. It is high time that Humza Yousaf tackled this scandal head on and proved to the Scottish public that he has his own man, instead of defending and deflecting from his predecessor’s tarnished legacy. Yousaf says he has also ordered a review of the Scottish government’s plans to restrict alcohol advertising. He says he does not want to undermine “Scotland’s world-class drinks industry”. Yousaf says Scotland to delay introduction of controversial bottle recycling scheme until next March Yousaf says the Scottish government is delaying the introduction of the bottle deposit scheme until 1 March 2024. That is a significant climbdown. As my colleague Kiran Stacey reported last month, the UK government was considering blocking the scheme because of concerns about how it would operate. Yousaf says the second principle in his plan is based on the theme of opportunity. He says a fair transition to net zero is part of that. He will never do to oil and gas workers what the Thatcher government did to coal and steel workers, he says. He says businesses are a key part of his plan. He is the proud son of a business owner, he says. The government needs businesses to grow. Here is the policy paper published this afternoon by the Scottish government. Its title is Equality, opportunity, community: new leadership – a fresh start. Humza Yousaf is speaking to MSPs now. He is setting out his government’s priorities. The speech was scheduled when he did not know it would coincide with the arrest of his party’s treasurer. He says the job of first minister “not without its challenges”. But it is “the honour of my life”, he says. And he says the government is publishing a prospectus today setting out its plans. There are three missions, built around the themes of equality, opportunity and community, he says. On equality, he says the government will commit to continuing to tackle poverty in all its forms, and to substantially reducing poverty. Former SNP leadership candidate Ash Regan says she has "some sympathy" with people saying contest should be rerun Ash Regan, who came last out of three in the SNP leadership contest, told Radio 4’s The World at One that she had “some sympathy” with those members who were saying the internal party turmoil meant the leadership contest should be re-run. She said she was not calling for that herself. But she said that “some people” were making that argument, and she went on: “I do have some sympathy with that argument.” She said that during the contest, when it turned out that the party had previously lied to the media about the size of the membership, she had argued for members to be allowed to change their vote, if they had already voted. That was not allowed. But if it had, “we might be in a different situation”, Regan told The World at One. The argument for rerunning the contest is based on the idea that, if members had known the full extent of the problems allowed to accumulate under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership, they might have been less keen to vote for the person most seen as the continuity candidate, Humza Yousaf. Humza Yousaf rules out suspending SNP treasurer arrested by police, and says he does not think party now acting criminally Humza Yousaf is giving a speech to the Scottish parliament this afternoon that was billed as the launch of his new administration’s programme. Beforehand, the first minister found himself having to asssure journalists that he did not believe the SNP is operating as a criminal enterprise right now. That was one of the questions put to him in a brief Q&A with journalists. Here are the main points. Yousaf said he was “surprised” to learn that Colin Beattie, the SNP treasurer, had been arrested. He said he did not think the SNP was acting in a criminal way. Asked if he could guarante that the party was not “operating in a criminal way right now, since you became leader”, he replied: “I don’t believe it is at all.” He said he had ordered a review to into transparency and good governance. The party had to change the way it operated, he said. He appeared to rule out suspending Beattie, saying he took the view that people are “people are innocent until proven guilty”. But he said he would consider removing Beattie from the the Holyrood’s public audit committe. Asked if he would do this, he said: I’ll consider that. I have to speak to Colin Beattie. My understanding is he is still in the police station being questioned. When he’s off that, I need to have a word with Colin, not about the live police investigation, we can’t speak about the detail of that, but clearly there are pertinent issues around his role on the public audit committee and his role, of course, as the national treasurer. He described Beattie’s arrest as “not helpful” given he is making a statement to MSPs about his government’s priorities later. This is from Sky’s Connor Gillies. Hague says critics of trans women joining Women"s Institute should "get over" it because trans people "part of society now" The Women’s Institute is reportedly facing a revolt from some members of its policy allowing transgender women to join. But on Times Radio this morning William Hague, the former Tory leader, said WI members unhappy with the policy should “get used” to the fact that trans women are part of society now. He said: I think on this issue, there are some areas where there’s been a danger of going too fast, competitive sport is one of them. And world athletics has made clear that women in women’s sport can’t be transgender, otherwise it would be the end of women’s sport. And I think that is quite right. I’m not sure that applies to the Women’s Institute, though. There are transgender people, they have changed their gender. This is part of our society now. And I think large national organisations like the WI have to get over that and get used to that, and welcome new people. So that would be the side of the argument I’m on. I’ll probably get a lot of angry letters now from the from WI members but I would be on that side of the argument. At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson was asked about Hague’s comment, and whether Rishi Sunak was also on that side of the argument. The spokesperson implied, not quite. The spokesperson said he had not seen Hague’s comments, and that it was for the groups like the WI to decide for themselves who their members should be. He went on: The prime minister has said that it is vitally important that transgender people are treated with compassion at all times as a starting point … But it will for a specific group to decide [what its policy is].