Evening summary
It’s almost 5pm in Westminster. Here is a roundup of the day’s main news stories:
Nicola Sturgeon will stand down as first minister of Scotland, she has announced at a press conference. In a shock decision, Scotland’s longest-serving first minister said she had instructed the Scottish National party (SNP) to begin the process of electing a new leader and would remain in office until her successor was chosen. The SNP leader has had a series of political setbacks recently, including the UK supreme court defeat of her plans for a fresh independence referendum and a damaging row over a double rapist being sent to a female jail after announcing she was a trans woman.
The Scottish first minister set out her reasons for resigning and was at pains to stress that it is not a reaction to “short-term pressures”. Sturgeon admitted there were “difficult issues” confronting the government but said she had “plenty of experience to draw on” in “soldiering on when walking away would be the simpler option”.
A new SNP leader could reunite the independence movement, Sturgeon’s predecessor Alex Salmond has said. Asked on BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme whether he saw an opportunity for his rival party Alba, Salmond said: “Well, what I see as an opportunity is to reset the independence movement.” He noted it depended “a great deal on who succeeds” Sturgeon.
The Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, said Sturgeon “refused to accept the result” of the 2014 independence referendum and her tenure as first minister was marked with “relentless agitating” for another referendum.
The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, said Nicola Sturgeon was an “able politician” who had led Scotland through some of the most “challenging times” in recent history. He said: “It is right that today we pay tribute to those achievements, particularly during the pandemic. Regardless of our differences, she is an able politician who has stood at the forefront of Scottish politics for more than 20 years. On a human level that is worthy of respect and thanks.”
The pro-independence leader of Catalonia, the Spanish region that launched an unsuccessful, unilateral bid to secede from the rest of Spain in late 2017, also paid tribute to Sturgeon’s leadership and the example she had set for like-minded movements. “Thank you, Nicola Sturgeon, for your courage and political commitment to progress, social justice and your tireless struggle for freedom,” Pere Aragonès wrote on Twitter. “Your leadership will continue inspiring independence movements. You will always have Catalonia as an ally.”
Keir Starmer has said Jeremy Corbyn will not stand as a Labour party candidate at the next general election. Asked by reporters whether he could say “categorically” whether or not his predecessor would stand for the party at the next election, the Labour leader said: “Let me be very clear about that; Jeremy Corbyn will not stand for Labour at the next general election, as a Labour party candidate.”
Dame Margaret Hodge said Labour has “moved on from the very dark days of October 2020 when the EHRC judged us to be a party that was discriminating against Jews”. Her comments came after the Equality and Human Rights Commission watchdog said it was no longer monitoring Labour after it made the changes demanded over its law-breaking handling of antisemitism under Corbyn.
Talks between teaching unions and the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, have ended without progress yet again, prompting warnings that further strike action in schools in England seems “inevitable”. After the meeting, which lasted an hour and 20 minutes, the unions said the government had put no new offer on the table, prompting warnings of a possible escalation in strike action.
Negotiations with the Treasury over public spending levels are always an uphill battle, the defence secretary has acknowledged, amid reports he is looking for an increase of up to £11bn in defence spending. Ben Wallace said soaring inflation was hitting the Ministry of Defence’s real-terms budget particularly hard, dismissing suggestions he would resign if the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, refused to provide the nominal increase he was looking for.
A report by the government’s independent watchdog on surveillance found that British police are leaving themselves open to spying by Beijing because of their reliance on Chinese-made cameras. Most forces in England and Wales use camera equipment that is either made in China or contains important Chinese components, the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner has warned.
The Liberal Democrats have delivered 48,000 of their campaign leaflets to Tory MP Lee Anderson’s constituency, after he promised to deliver them to voters himself. Last week, the Lib Dems announced a new advertising blitz with posters highlighting the controversial views of the new Conservative party chair, including his backing the death penalty and suggesting people who use food banks “can’t cook properly”.
More than 2,500 refugees and asylum seekers have crossed the Channel to the UK so far this year. Government figures show 204 people made the journey on Tuesday in five boats, taking the provisional 2023 total to date to 2,517.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the UK politics live blog for today. Thanks for following along on what turned out to be a busy day of political news. Goodbye for now.
Updated
More than 2,500 people have crossed the Channel to the UK in small boats so far this year.
Government figures show 204 people made the journey on Tuesday in five boats, taking the provisional 2023 total to date to 2,517.
This is more than 1,000 higher than the total number of crossings for January and February combined in 2022 (1,482), PA Media reported.
The busiest day of 2023 so far was 25 January when 321 people were brought to the UK in eight boats.
Updated
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