The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday July 10 2025 #Politics

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Thursday.

00:06I'm Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our political correspondent

00:10Rachel Amory.

00:12Rachel, despite Holyrood currently being in recess, there is plenty happening on the

00:17politics front.

00:18We'll talk about the front page of today's Scotsman firstly, and we'll let on police

00:23gearing up for Donald Trump to visit Scotland.

00:25A lot of talk that it'll be the final week of this month and that he will visit potentially

00:32several of his golf courses here in Scotland.

00:35Certainly police are preparing for that outcome.

00:38There's still a lot of the fine details up in the air, which would be mindful that could

00:42still change depending on global events and where Trump needs to be as well.

00:47But certainly a lot of preparations confirm taking place in the background around that

00:53expected visit.

00:55Also Wimbledon continues, it's semifinals, Ladies' Day today, and also it's the first

01:01day of the Scottish Open with Robert Bob McIntyre out on the course, hoping to obviously defend

01:08what he did in the competition last year.

01:13Rachel, let's touch on a couple of things.

01:16Firstly, the Greens, Scottish Greens, this is a leadership process, is well underway.

01:22We know Patrick Harvey's standing down.

01:25We know Lorna Slater is not, that she would like to stay on again as a leader.

01:32But can you talk us through just the process and who's putting up their hand so far to try

01:37and lead the party beyond this year?

01:39Yeah, so the Scottish Greens have quite a different democratic system than a lot of political parties.

01:45They have regular leadership contests.

01:48So even if Patrick Harvey hadn't decided to stand down, we would still be seeing this leadership

01:52contest regardless.

01:54And that means that both co-leadership positions are up for grabs.

01:58Now, Lorna Slater, the current co-leader and former government minister, she is keen to

02:01stay in that position.

02:02So she has put her name forward.

02:04But there are two others that we need to look at as well.

02:06One is the central MSP, Gillian Mackay.

02:10She's been quite vocal in recent years, particularly around abortion buffer zones and free to view

02:15football on TV.

02:17She has declared that she wants to stand as well.

02:20The third person we think about is the West of Scotland MSP, Ross Greer.

02:24You might know him best from the Save Loch Lomond campaign with Flamingoland plans there.

02:30Now, he is very much expected to announce that he will be standing.

02:34We've heard a lot of sort of rumours around the newspapers that, yes, that is happening.

02:38And in fact, our political editor, Alistair Grant, is actually en route to Glasgow as we

02:42speak to hear him make an announcement, which we're pretty certain is him announcing that

02:46he is also going to be standing for leadership.

02:48So there's two positions up for grabs.

02:49And so far, it looks like there's three big names all looking to get one of those positions.

02:54She also mentioned, though, that the way that the system works in the Green Party is

02:57quite interesting.

02:58Anybody can stand.

03:00So you might very well find that there's somebody who's not an elected member running for leadership

03:05as well.

03:06Lorna Slater, for example, was co-leader before she became an MSP in Hollywood.

03:10So that could happen as well.

03:11So lots to keep an eye out for in this leadership contest.

03:15Rachel, am I right in thinking, correct me if I'm wrong, that Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay

03:20sit in one camp of the party.

03:22But there is another camp that has been perhaps unhappy with the direction running under Patrick

03:28Arby and some of the current leadership.

03:31Are we expecting anyone from that cohort of the Greens to actually put their name up while

03:36the window is open?

03:37It could be quite interesting to see if that will happen.

03:39There's certainly a group within the Green Party who are not part of the elected MSPs in

03:45Hollywood.

03:45But they feel that that group of MSPs in Hollywood has become a bit detached from the rest of

03:50the party.

03:51And it's perhaps being not institutionalised, but it's been a bit too focused on Hollywood,

03:56not as much on what's happening elsewhere.

03:58Often the Green Party in Hollywood are called extremists by some who like to criticise them.

04:02But I think some within the Green Party think they're not extreme enough, which is quite

04:06an interesting balance of opinions there.

04:09So there is this group within the party who are wanting to make sure that certain names

04:13who are in Holyrood are not at the top of the regional lists when it comes to next year's

04:18election.

04:18There is certainly a growing movement within the party of that.

04:21So it's going to be really interesting to keep an eye on that and see what happens and

04:24see if names like Patrick Harvey, Laura Slater, Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer, will they

04:31be the top of their list when it comes to the election next year or will they be falling

04:34down in the list in preference for somebody else?

04:38Just on the wider national scale, talks are ongoing, although I think reaching towards

04:44their conclusion between Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, the UK and France.

04:48Where are we at there?

04:50Yes, this is the third and last day of Emmanuel Macron's visit to the UK.

04:54It's a three-day visit and there's been plenty of photographs and speeches that have been

04:58made in the days that he has been here.

05:01Now, I believe he's at Downing Street, probably around about right now, actually, where him

05:05and Keir Starmer are talking about a deal on migrants crossing on small boats.

05:11There's been over 21,000 migrants who have crossed the channel on small boats this year

05:15so far, which is I think about a 56% increase on what it was last year.

05:19So quite significant numbers that we are talking about here.

05:22We're understanding this deal is going to be a sort of a one-in-one-out kind of deal.

05:25So for every one migrant who crossed the channel that is then returned to France, France will

05:31then give the UK one asylum seeker, probably somebody who has some sort of connection to

05:37the UK already and has, I suppose, a legitimate reason, if you want to put it that way, of

05:42why they need to come to the UK.

05:44Now, we're still not sure of the details because it hasn't been confirmed yet, but we're thinking

05:48there'll be a trial of about 50 people that will be initially in this pilot of this scheme.

05:54So we're expecting that announcement to come quite soon from down the street.

05:58You can keep an eye at scotsman.com for all the latest on that.

06:02Rachel, just lastly, you've been looking at MPs of Westminster.

06:06When they ask questions, how often, et cetera, we'll have a piece on the site very shortly.

06:12What's it thrown up that's of interest?

06:15Yeah, so the MPs have all now been in place for a year.

06:19So it's quite interesting to you.

06:20He'll look back and see what they've been up to in Westminster.

06:22So we have taken a look at every single Scottish MP.

06:25How many times have they voted in the past year?

06:27How many times have they spoken in debates in the past year?

06:30And also how many early day motions and how many written questions they have asked of the

06:34government as well.

06:35And some very varying degrees of how much people are doing and are not.

06:41Should say at this point that a high number of something and a low number of something here

06:45doesn't necessarily equate to how much work they are actually doing.

06:48But it is quite interesting to look at the numbers anyway.

06:51So those who have been voting the most are actually the Labour MPs, Chris Kane and Brian

06:56Leishman.

06:56They are the two that voted the most, I believe, 225 times in the past year.

07:02By contrast, the person who's voted the least is actually the SNP's Westminster leader,

07:06Stephen Flynn, who's only voted 66 times.

07:09I should point out, though, that the SNP do have quite a long-standing policy of not voting

07:14on something if it doesn't directly affect Scotland.

07:17So, for example, this is just a dying vote.

07:19The SNP MPs all abstain from that because it only applies to England and Wales.

07:24So that's probably going to be skewing the SNP numbers there quite a bit.

07:28But if you look generally, sort of MPs like Christine Jardine, she's the Lib Dem MSP for

07:33Edinburgh West.

07:33She is doing so much.

07:35When you look at the numbers here, she's been asking loads of questions, supporting loads of

07:38motions.

07:39She's also spoken the most time in debates, I believe, over 320 times that she has spoken

07:43in debates in the past year.

07:45If you compare that to a lot of the new Labour MPs that have come in the door, they have

07:50not been quite so active in terms of speaking in debates and asking questions.

07:54There's quite a few who haven't supported any motions or submitted any questions and have

07:59spoken in the chamber 10 times or less as well.

08:03So quite a varying degree of what's been happening there.

08:06But it's quite an interesting way to look at what everyone's been up to for the past

08:09year.

08:10And you mentioned Brian Leishman there.

08:12Our political editor, Alistair Grant, sat down with him for an extended interview last

08:17week.

08:17You can read that full interview piece at scotsman.com.

08:20Just follow or head to our politics tab in the navigation bar on the main site to find

08:26it.

08:27You can get all the very latest through our social channels or just going directly to the

08:32site and please pick up a copy of the Scotsman in print tomorrow.

08:35Rachel, thanks to you and thanks to everyone else for joining us.

08:39Bye-bye.

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