Top aide says SNP leader will seek approval to press for independence even if he fails to win majority on 7 May

John Swinney will call a vote seeking independence powers on the first day of the next Scottish parliament even if he fails to win an overall majority, his aides have said.

The Scottish National Party leader’s senior adviser indicated that if necessary, he would rely on support from the pro-independence Scottish Greens to win that vote in order to demand the UK government gives Holyrood the legal powers to hold a second referendum.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle earlier confirmed that MPs will decide whether to let inquiry into Keir Starmer’s statements over Peter Mandelson proceed

Downing Street has said that the UK is “in a good position” to handle the global supply problems caused by the Iran war not being resolved.

Speaking at the morning lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said:

We remain focused on a long-term, permanent solution to the crisis. As a result of the forward-planning, the government undertook over the past few months, the UK is in a good position.

We’re ramping up planning for all different potential impacts on the UK economy and consumers, and that means focusing on a live monitoring of stock levels and what plans are in place for addressing supply chain disruption.

Even Boris Johnson didn’t block his MPs voting for scrutiny. Labour MPs must be given a free vote on any motion to refer Starmer to the privileges committee, not forced into being accomplices to a cover-up.

If Keir Starmer has misled the House and the public, he must be held to the same standard that we should expect of any prime minister.

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Former Scottish Labour leader says she understands that expressing respect for author caused ‘worry, anger and upset’

The incoming chair of the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall says she is “truly sorry” after she expressed “huge respect” for JK Rowling in an interview with the Guardian. Kezia Dugdale, the former leader of Scottish Labour, said she understood that her words had caused “worry, anger and upset and I am truly sorry about that”.

In an interview for the Today in Focus podcast in Edinburgh to mark her appointment as Stonewall’s chair, Dugdale was asked what she thought of the way in which Rowling has talked about transgender people.

Firm went bust in February amid fallout from the scandal over Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein

Little says in March she had a meeting when she asked to see the Foreign Office’s documentation about the decision to grant Mandelson vetting. She said she was asking because this was documentation covered by the humble address. She said was told that “that information would not be forthcoming”.

In the middle of March, I have a meeting with Sir Olly and a senior member of his team, and this is after the point that I’ve been told that this summary document exists.

I specifically ask to see this document and any decision-making audit trail around those judgments at the time. It was made clear to me that that information would not be forthcoming.

I took the very unusual judgment that I should directly request the information from UK Security Vetting.

And I did that because I go back to my responsibilities, to discharge the humble address, which is a responsibility that is unique to me and I take very seriously.

All signs point to a record-low performance for Labour in May in what will be a moment of high jeopardy for Keir Starmer

Labour is on track for its worst local election performance next Thursday, data analysed by the Guardian shows, in a blow that will pile further pressure on Keir Starmer’s leadership.

Barring a drastic change in fortunes, Labour’s vote-share could fall to historic lows across elections for councils in England and devolved parliaments in Wales and Scotland on 7 May, with big gains for Reform, the Greens and nationalist parties, according to recent polling.

Lords told sales of Scottish shellfish among areas that may benefit – but agreement will not erase all paperwork

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A new agriculture agreement with the EU will not wipe out all Brexit paperwork but might pave the way for sales of Scottish langoustines and oysters, the House of Lords has heard.

The UK and EU are close to finalising a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement to reduce Brexit trade barriers, and while it will have “modest” impact on the UK economy the agreement will be significant, peers on the European affairs committee were told on Tuesday.

MPs jeer as PM says it is ‘incredible’ he was not told full story and says he was wrong to appoint Mandelson as US ambassador

At his press conference Nigel Farage was asked about reports saying that Keir Starmer knew about the security concerns about Peter Mandelson that led to him failing his security vetting interview. That was a reference to the Telegraph splash, which says:

Senior Whitehall sources told The Telegraph that the UKSV [UK Security Vetting] findings largely restated security risks that had already been drawn to Sir Keir’s attention.

One senior source with knowledge of the process said: “The reality is that Starmer had already been warned about the major risks and he had waved them away.”

Sources have told The Independent that MI6 failed to clear the Labour peer largely because of concerns over his business links to China.

However, there were also worries that his past links to the disgraced financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein “would compromise him”.

It’s impossible for the prime minister to say the warning lights weren’t flashing.

And if you were prime minister and there were news reports last September that your ambassadorial choice had failed vetting, you would have thought perhaps he might have had some curiosity to try to find out whether this had really happened or not. I just find the whole thing totally incredible. Incredible. There is no way the prime minister couldn’t have known.

The Labour backbenchers are not yet of a mood to get rid of their prime minister, although after 7 May they just might be.

Two men died at the scene after head-on motorway collision near Kincross, Police Scotland say

Two drivers have died in a motorway crash in Scotland involving a car apparently travelling in the wrong direction on the carriageway, police have said.

The two men died at the scene of the collision on the M90 near Kinross, a town in Perth and Kinross, at 10.30pm on Friday.

Liza Tobay was told settled status had been ‘red flagged’ when she tried to fly home from Germany to Scotland

A German woman has been separated from her two-year-old daughter in Edinburgh after a Home Office mistake left her stranded in Dusseldorf earlier this week.

Liza Tobay, who has lived in the UK for 15 years, had taken her oldest child, a six-year-old boy, to visit his grandfather and some other relatives over Easter when confronted with what she said appeared to be “a serious administrative error”.

Tory leader criticises Farage for saying that holding another independence vote ‘probably quite reasonable’

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative party, has accused Nigel Farage of being an opportunist who does not believe in unionism after he urged Scottish nationalists to back Reform.

Farage said earlier this week he believed “genuine nationalists” would not support the Scottish National party’s bid to rejoin the EU, and urged them to vote Reform in the Holyrood election on 7 May.