SNP leadership nominations close
Ash Regan joins the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon today. Assuming no one else decides to jump in before nominations close at noon, she will face Kate Forbes and Humza Yousafwho is also running for the leadership of the party.
The Edinburgh Eastern MSP has the support of around 7% of SNP voters when the race starts, according to a poll released on Friday. Launching her campaign, she hinted that she wanted to let groups working for the wider Yes movement ahead of 2014 take the lead for independence, while the Scottish Government focuses on running the country.
She has accused her colleagues in the SNP of not listening to such groups.
Even today, the Secretary of Defense, Ben Wallace, has said that Britain will not directly supply Ukraine with its Typhoon fighter jets as their complexity and the lack of training among Ukrainian forces would also require the deployment of large numbers of RAF ground personnel to the war zone; a step Britain is unwilling to take.
Instead, he has said, Britain could offer air cover to eastern European nations that want to provide aircraft that the Ukrainian forces are already trained to operate and maintain.
Key events
Regan has become more vocal in her opposition to the party’s leadership in recent months, after she resigned in opposition to gender reforms, with her most high-profile backer Joanna Cherry calls for party leader Peter Murrell – Who is Nicola Sturgeon’s husband – to quit.
Regan has said she will try to restore relations between SNP groups in Westminster and Holyrood as leader, attend meetings in the House of Commons and have MPs do the same in Edinburgh.
We need to adopt a much more collegial approach and use all the talent at our disposal properly by appointing the best people to the jobs that best suit their abilities.
Regan would not be drawn to government positions for her rivals during her Herald interview, but described fellow candidate Forbes as one of the SNP’s “top talents”, adding:
If elected to serve, there will be some very important jobs to be won in my government, and I want to make sure that only the very best get them, regardless of whether I agree with them on everything.
We need to have the very best people advising us, even if they don’t support independence. What is important is that they have the gifts and the will to help us make Scotland better.
She has also reiterated her position to drop any legal action against the UK government over its blocking of the Gender Recognition Reforms (Scotland) Bill, saying she will not “waste any more time” on a court battle that is unlikely to be won .
The SNP has been “dismantling” the Yes movement since the independence referendum, the leadership candidate Ash Regan have said.
Speaking to the Herald, the former social security minister hit out at the party’s current leadership, saying she will bring the independence movement “back to the people”. Regan launches her campaign on Friday. She told the newspaper:
In recent years, the wider yes movement has been marginalized in the struggle for independence. If I am elected, I intend to change that.
As a party, I think we haven’t listened enough to the groups that got us here. I know these people, because I campaigned side by side with them throughout the first referendum. The party has effectively dismantled the yes campaign, but I want to reconstruct it once more.
It is also important that we continue to govern on the day-to-day issues that affect all the people of Scotland.
And, as much as possible, let some of the groups that did great work for the yes cause in 2013 and 2014 do what they did so well then. I want to get the band back together, if you want.
SNP leadership nominations close
Ash Regan joins the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon today. Assuming no one else decides to jump in before nominations close at noon, she will face Kate Forbes and Humza Yousafwho is also running for the leadership of the party.
The Edinburgh Eastern MSP has the support of around 7% of SNP voters when the race starts, according to a poll released on Friday. Launching her campaign, she hinted that she wanted to let groups working for the wider Yes movement ahead of 2014 take the lead for independence, while the Scottish Government focuses on running the country.
She has accused her colleagues in the SNP of not listening to such groups.
Even today, the Secretary of Defense, Ben Wallace, has said that Britain will not directly supply Ukraine with its Typhoon fighter jets as their complexity and the lack of training among Ukrainian forces would also require the deployment of large numbers of RAF ground personnel to the war zone; a step Britain is unwilling to take.
Instead, he has said, Britain could offer air cover to eastern European nations that want to provide aircraft that the Ukrainian forces are already trained to operate and maintain.