Scotsman Daily Bulletin Tuesday 9 July
Scotsman Daily Bulletin Tuesday 9July
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Built In for Tuesday. I'm Alan Young. I'm
00:07Deputy Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our Westminster correspondent, Alex
00:11Brown. Let's take a look at a big day ahead in the Commons. Hi, Alex.
00:18Morning.
00:19Let's have a look at the front page first. Not as if I can find it, of course. Here we
00:28are. We splash today on a story which is centred on Scotland and this is the early release
00:36of long-term prisoners and proposals to release inmates having just served two-thirds of their
00:45sentence. This has been met with some concern by victims groups and the Scottish Tories.
00:52Why I point out that it's centred on Scotland is we would expect to see a similar move across
01:00the whole of the UK, possibly as soon as this week. We also report on the front page there
01:08on Rachel Reeves, the new Chancellor, her big speech yesterday and how that has increased
01:14pressure on First Minister John Swinney to tackle the housing crisis in Scotland.
01:22But, Alex, I want to turn to today because it is a big day in Westminster. All the new
01:29MPs getting sworn in, or at least some of them. I guess they might not get through them
01:34all. I was particularly struck by the picture yesterday of Keir Starmer posing with all
01:41the new Labour MPs and I think that just really brings home the seismic change that
01:49we're seeing in British politics. I'll bring it up here. I don't expect you to name them
01:55all left to right, but I know you were in Westminster yesterday as the new MPs arrived.
02:02Give us a sense of the atmosphere, I guess.
02:05Well, it was surreal, really. I mean, it was exciting, you know, seeing new faces.
02:10But for so long, MPs and journalists and basically everyone in Westminster has known who was
02:15coming up those escalators. You know, I knew all the SNP MPs, I knew the Tory MPs and I
02:22could recognise people because they have been around for, we've worked in this space for
02:26nearly five years together. Now, everyone, whenever someone walks past, people going,
02:31is that an MP? I suppose at one point I was doing an interview with a Green co-leader
02:38and one of the press team told me that they'd just been approached by ITV asking if they
02:42were an MP, because everyone is just guessing. Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem MP, told
02:47me, you know, he kept craning his neck to work out who was who and he was in the situation
02:52where he doesn't know anyone's name and they represent places he's never heard of.
02:56He said, you know, there's 72 Lib Dem MPs now. He's got no idea who's going to be who.
03:01So the atmosphere was full of excitement, like new people coming in, but at the same
03:05time, you've got these so many people flooding out. I saw people brandishing cardboard boxes
03:09and bin bags as they leave. It was interesting speaking to some SNP MPs today. One messaged
03:15me saying they'd already packed their bags, they'd already cleared out their desks before,
03:19so they didn't have to go through this. At the same time, you know, the Tory party having
03:24been torn apart, now looking for a new leader. Robert Jenrick with a fresh haircut, like
03:29he's ready for war, at the top of the escalators where everyone comes up to get into the main
03:33cafeteria, loitering and having quiet words with people. But also away from that, you
03:38know, building for the future, you could see kind of, you know, reconciliation of maybe
03:43the battles of the past. Jonathan Gullis, who is one of the most motor-mouthed Tory
03:48MPs, former deputy party chair, and someone who was critical of the Rwanda plan being
03:55got rid of until he was offered a job and then suddenly approved of it, was always in
04:00Paul Gullis' house, the main area, briefing journalists. And just to see him sat with
04:05a few other Tories lamenting the result, having a coffee like they hadn't quite let go, and
04:10then see them joined by David Linden, an SNP MP, you know, perhaps sharing what they're
04:15going to do next. It was just a surreal day. And at the same time, you have a backdrop,
04:20like it's freshers' fair, you know, you arrive in the building and you're greeted with a
04:25here are your temporary lockers booth, so people can put their things where they want
04:29to put them. And at the same time, a slightly smaller one for the register for members'
04:34financial interests, so the members can, new members can go, oh, yeah, no, I do have a
04:38stake in that, or I do own part of that, so I can't speak about it in Parliament. It's
04:43a surreal beginning. And there was lots of recognising who people were.
04:48Looking ahead to today, then, what can we expect? I guess the first order of the business
04:54is to elect a Speaker.
04:56Yes. So Lindsay Hoyle, who, of course, wasn't very popular with the SNP after shenanigans
05:02over Gaza, he will comfortably be returned to Speaker, you would expect. We have a whole
05:08ceremony where he's dragged in against his will to come in, and he then takes his seat,
05:13and then we begin the swearing in, and that means MPs come in, they swear on whatever
05:20religious document they're so inclined, and they also have to swear allegiance to the
05:24King. Traditionally, one or two try and flop it slightly, but it's very hard wording-wise
05:30to get around it, even if you are a Republican. As to whether it will all be done today, I
05:34think it's three days of it. I mean, we have to remember, Tories lost 200 seats, Labour
05:39piled them on, and the same for the Lib Dems. This is not a quick process. I mean, I would
05:44love to tell our viewers that Parliament's getting on with it immediately, and we're
05:48going to have really exciting things, but in reality, we're just going to have people
05:52being sworn in for three days. The only main headline today will be Rich Tunick will have
05:57to be in the Chamber for this. He will be in there for the election of a Speaker, so
06:01it will be the first time we've seen him in the Chamber since his pretty disastrous
06:06election. And that Speaker is likely to be Lindsay Hoyle. Again, there's no doubt about
06:12that. No, I mean, none at all. He's been, I mean, while you might disagree if you're
06:18in the SNP side of things, he's been pretty fair, he's pretty popular, and given the Speaker
06:23they had before in John Bercow, everyone's pretty grateful and supportive of him.
06:30Looking ahead, then, Keir Starmer jetting off to America for his first overseas trip.
06:37Yeah, it's pretty remarkable, isn't it? I mean, the handover and the change in power
06:42is so immediate and so brutal, with people packing their bags and being out. And then
06:46he's been in the job for five minutes, and now he's flying off to go speak to American
06:51politicians. I mean, it was the same for David Lammy, who's been, I think, in Germany having
06:57meetings. John Ashworth has already gone places. It's John Ashworth or Johnny Reynolds,
07:02whichever one didn't lose their seat. I mean, at this point, it's hard to tell. I mean,
07:07it's, you know, where the party is. Everyone's already jetting off. It's interesting that
07:12Keir Starmer this morning had meetings with all the mayoral winners, and they all arrived
07:17in an electric bus. They all got the same electric bus to Downing Street, except for
07:21Ben Hutchin, who was the only Tory mayor who won. But I thought it was interesting listening
07:25to him after, because he said that it was always difficult after 14 years of government,
07:30and that actually the sense he got from Keir was that he was energetic, he was driven,
07:35and a man on a mission, and that if he succeeded, Britain succeeded, so he looked forward to
07:39working with him. That is not the dialogue of someone thinking, right, I'm ready to pick
07:43fights. That is, I would say, praise from someone who perhaps doesn't need to do that.
07:49So, you know, I think Keir's going to have this really comfortable time now and get accustomed
07:55to the international visits and international diplomacy.
07:58Indeed. Interesting. Time's ahead. Thanks very much, Alex. I know you're heading to
08:02Westminster, so I'll let you go and get ready. Please keep an eye on Scotsman.com throughout
08:09today for all the very latest news and analysis. If you can do subscribe, then you can read
08:14and watch absolutely everything that we do. And if you're out and about today, as ever,
08:19please do pick up a copy of the paper. But from me and from Alex, it's bye for now.