Nicola Sturgeon is facing mounting pressure over claims she misled the Scottish Parliament about Alex Salmond, as Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives at Holyrood urged her to consider her position.
Sir Keir Starmer earlier said the first minister should resign on principle if she is found to have broken the ministerial code.
The Labour leader was responding to reports that a Holyrood committee had concluded Ms Sturgeon misled a parliamentary investigation into the handling of sexual misconduct claims against Alex Salmond.
MSPs on the Scottish Government harassment complaints committee voted 5 to 4 that the first minister gave an “inaccurate” account of a meeting with her predecessor during the live investigation, a source told the PA news agency.
Earlier, the European Commission vice-president said the UK government has been advising businesses in Northern Ireland to break international law.
Traders working across the new border have been told how to duck the terms of the Northern Ireland protocol, Maros Sefcovic said days after the EU launched legal action against Britain over its unilateral extension of post-Brexit grace periods for goods.
Salmond vs Sturgeon: Your complete guide to the ‘whole sorry story’
If you’re wanting to get up to speed on the Sturgeon-Salmond affair, look no further than The Independent’s complete guide to the bitter mess engulfing Scottish politics.
Adam Forrest has laid out the key moments in the row, along with a look at the wider SNP and where allegiances lie:
Ruth Davidson says Nicola Sturgeon should ‘consider her position’
Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives at Holyrood, has urged Nicola Sturgeon to consider her position over claims she misled parliament about Alex Salmond.
Ms Davidson told the BBC: “There’s clear evidence now that Nicola Sturgeon misled parliament and I think she should consider her own position. ”
“The first minister really has spent her entire political career standing on her honour, and if she had a shred of integrity, she would now choose herself to go.”
More on this from our Whitehall Editor Kate Devlin:
Love the flag and the Queen or ‘move to another country’, Conservative MP tells the public
Conservative MP Lia Nici has suggested people should leave the country if they do not feel pride in “our flag or Queen”.
The Grimsby MP was commenting after minister Robert Jenrick was mocked on BBC Breakfast over the floor-to-ceiling Union flag placed for viewers to see.
Several Tories have raged at the incident but Ms Nici went further, tweeting: “Of course if people are not proud to be British, or of our flag or Queen, they don’t have to live in the UK. Perhaps they should move to another country they prefer.”
Londoners told not to join planned weekend protests
People planning to join protests in central London this weekend in breach of coronavirus restrictions risk arrest, the Metropolitan Police said.
A number of demonstrations are expected to take place in the capital, including a rally at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park to support Piers Corbyn’s mayoral bid.
The brother of the former Labour leader has been at the forefront of the anti-lockdown movement since restrictions were imposed a year ago.
There are also expected to be protests against plans to give police in England and Wales more power to impose conditions on non-violent protests, including those deemed too noisy or a nuisance.
UK has ‘strong measures’ at border, Downing Street says as France faces third wave of coronavirus
A spokesman for Boris Johnson said the UK had “strong measures” at the border when asked whether the government was concerned about rising Covid rates in France and other European countries.
Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, who spurred the UK’s decision to go into lockdown last March, warned a “significant fraction” of European cases were likely to be of the South African variant, which it is feared the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine could be less effective against.
Asked about Prof Ferguson’s remarks, a spokesman for the prime minister said: “What I would say in relation to those specific comments, we already have strong measures in place at the border as you will be aware.
“It is currently illegal to go on holiday and anyone arriving in England has to self-isolate, take two mandatory PCR tests on day two and day eight of their 10-day isolation period, and have a negative test before travel as well.
“Modelling is showing that a combination of specific policy options such as pre-departure testing and isolation are effective measures for mitigating the public health risk.”
Pressed on whether some EU countries could be placed on the “red list”, meaning a stint quarantining in a hotel upon arrival in England, the No 10 spokesman replied: “I would point you back to the wide variety of strong measures that we have in place at the border.
“We have them in place and believe them to be strong and robust measures.”
Slapdown for Jacob Rees-Mogg from Boris Johnson over attack on journalist
Boris Johnson has slapped down Jacob Rees-Mogg over his attack on a journalist under cover of parliamentary privilege, with Downing Street saying: “These are not comments that the prime minister would have made.”
Political editor Andrew Woodcock has the full story:
Majority of British support nurses’ strike against 1 per cent pay rise, poll finds | Exclusive
A majority of British voters would back nurses taking strike action against the 1 per cent pay rise offered by the government after a year on the Covid-19 frontline, a new poll has revealed.
The Savanta ComRes survey for The Independent found 53 per cent support for industrial action by NHS nurses, against just 28 per cent in opposition.
Just 11 per cent said that nurses should receive a 1 per cent hike, compared to an overwhelming 77 per cent who said the settlement should be more generous – including 25 per cent who said the rise should be 10 per cent or more.
Read the full report from our Political Editor Andrew Woodcock here:
What next for Nicola Sturgeon?
“There are no protest marches or riots in the streets calling for Sturgeon to go – quite the opposite, with many unable to follow the technical, procedural lawyerly wrangling.”
Nicola Sturgeon won’t be resigning just yet, but, Sean O’Grady explains, the fight for Scottish independence has been dealt a blow:
What next for Nicola Sturgeon?
Sean O’Grady explains why the first minister won’t be leaving her post just yet – but the fight for Scottish independence has been dealt a blow
Scottish Tory leader says: Why wait?
Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, also put out a statement on the matter of whether or not Nicola Sturgeon misled parliament.
He took rather a different line to his Scottish Labour counterpart. Where Anas Sarwar said he would not prejudge the outcome of the report, Mr Ross said he was certain the first minister had lied and did not need to wait for the committee’s confirmation to say so.
Scottish Labour leader on Sturgeon claims
Anas Sarwar, the leader of Scottish Labour, has released a statement in the wake of reports that a Holyrood committee concluded Nicola Sturgeon misled parliament over her knowledge of the sexual assault allegations against Alex Salmond.
