The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday August 06 2025 #SNP #IanBlackford

The Scotsman

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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Wednesday. My name's Dale

00:05Miller. I'm a Deputy Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by Deputy Political Editor,

00:10David Boll. David, there's some significant news on the political front that you're covering today.

00:17I know you're out and about, so thank you for joining us. We'll talk through that in a moment,

00:21but firstly, the front page of today's Scotsman. And it was hard not to lead on exam results.

00:29It was a big day for thousands of pupils across the country yesterday, as I learned their results

00:35after a year of intense and hard work, very stressful period for a lot of not just pupils,

00:42but parents and families as well to see if they get the grades that they were after.

00:47And the SNP has come under fire over their failure to cut the exam attainment gap. This is the

00:54poverty related attainment gap. It was a quest or a commitment from Nicola Sturgeon to dramatically

01:00reduce this gap and limited evidence that that is still happening on the back of the results yesterday.

01:07This is the effectively results received from those in the most advantage to those in the most

01:13disadvantaged working backgrounds. You can read that full story coverage from our new education

01:20correspondent, Katrina Stewart at scotsman.com. She's also written some analysis around the exam

01:26results as well. So that full package is available. If you can't find it, just head to the education

01:33tab available on the navigation bar. David, some breaking news effectively this morning that

01:40there's a surprise name that could be in the running for Kate Forbes' seat to put his name forward.

01:46Can you tell us who it is? Yeah, so Ian Blackford, the former SNP Westminster leader,

01:51has basically said that he's considering running again after his seat was abolished in Westminster

01:59last year and he decided before that he wasn't going to run. But he said he's giving it careful

02:05consideration whether to step into Kate Forbes' shoes. The constituency is very similar to his

02:11Westminster one, but it would be a very dramatic return to frontline politics for Ian Blackford.

02:19And obviously there'd be a little bit of tension with Stephen Flynn, who's also trying to make

02:25a return to a move to Holyrood from his Westminster seat. The two kind of fell out because Stephen Flynn

02:31essentially ousted him from his job. So potentially interesting consequences, but he hasn't made his mind

02:38up if he's going to stand. It's very late in the day to be kind of putting someone on the ballot,

02:43but the SNP will need to kind of set out a process for someone to kind of fill in for Kate Forbes,

02:48who announced earlier this week that she would not be seeking re-election.

02:52David, there's some interesting dynamics here, and I know you've written some analysis for the

02:58Steamy Politics Daily newsletter as well on this today. But we've got Stephen Flynn, who's the current

03:04SNP Westminster leader. He's also vying for a seat at Holyrood, but there's a bit of history

03:10between him and Ian Blackford that could be stirred up in both run.

03:15Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Stephen Flynn basically did oust him from his job. He denies that he did this,

03:21but he said he wasn't going to run and then about a week later announced his intention to become the

03:27next Westminster leader of the SNP. So yeah, I think Stephen Flynn was probably quite pleased when he had the

03:33news that Kate Forbes was going to resign. I think he sees himself as a future SNP leader and Kate

03:40Forbes was also kind of primed as that role. So that would have been quite a good kind of perspective

03:48for Stephen Flynn to see Kate Forbes kind of rule herself out as a potential rival. But Ian Blackford

03:57will definitely be someone he won't want to see emerge at Holyrood to kind of put that pressure on him to

04:02become the only really viable candidate to succeed John Swinney. We've not got many people.

04:10Marion McCallum was talked about as a potential successor. She's been quite high profile in a lot

04:16of the SNP stuff of late. Hamilton by-election, but she's been given a very difficult job by John Swinney to

04:23kind of solve this housing crisis. So by the time it comes to picking a successor for John Swinney,

04:30she's potentially going to have a lot of baggage and sort of a bad record behind her unless she can

04:36sort of turn things around. So Stephen Flynn was probably feeling quite confident that he would be

04:41the prime candidate to take over from John Swinney. It means it's going to be a big build up if it wasn't

04:48already going to be for the SNP John Swinney and the makeup for what any future cabinet could look like

04:55after the 2026 election. If they do re-win power, you can feel that there's got to be a bit of a

05:01changing of the guard with others like Shona Robeson and Fiona Hislop as well standing down next year.

05:08David, thanks for joining us. I know you're trying to speak separately there in Blackford today, so

05:14there could easily be more on this to read at scotsman.com throughout today. If you ever can't find

05:20our politics coverage, just go to the politics tab in the navigation bar. Outside of that,

05:25follow us on all social media channels and please pick up a copy of the Scotsman in print tomorrow

05:31for all the very latest. Thanks to you, David, and thanks to everyone else for joining us.

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