Publication

UK fighter jets for Qatar

FOUR extra British Typhoon fighter jets are being deployed to Qatar amid the conflict in the Middle East, Sir Keir Starmer has said. Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, the Prime Minister acknowledged that people across the UK are...

Royal Navy warship readies for mission in Middle East conflict

A ROYAL Navy warship is in Portsmouth being readied and is expected to set sail in the coming days to protect a UK military base in Cyprus, as conflict spirals in the Middle East. Clyde-built HMS Dragon is being loaded with ammunition, having just...

Defiant Reeves shrugs off downgrade in Tory attack

CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves seemed in defiant form yesterday as she shrugged off another major downgrade to this year’s growth forecast, while launching a concerted and arguably justified attack on the 14-year economic record of the Conservatives. The...

ALL THIS AND MORE IN TODAY’S PAPER

Wait for new £2m housing quango ‘will last for years’

SCOTLAND’S latest quango created to tackle the housing emergency will cost taxpayers a seven-figure sum to set up despite not being operational for years. The new agency, More Homes Scotland, was announced by First Minister John Swinney in January in...

Call for Scottish Water probe as salaries soar

CALLS are being made for an independent inquiry into Scottish Water amid soaring customer charges and eye-watering levels of executive pay and bonuses. Scotland’s largest trade union Unison is behind the demand after it commissioned an investigation...

University chief wants rethink on tuition fees

THE principal of one of Scotland’s universities has suggested it is time for a national conversation on reintroducing tuition fees amid a growing financial crisis for the sector. Professor Peter Edwards, of the University of Aberdeen, said that given...

Families of children who suffered complications from treatment lobby Holyrood

THE mother of a boy left with lifelong health complications after treatment at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital has said her family has “waited seven years for answers” about why he was prescribed powerful antiinfection drugs. Karen...

Big freeze in the Big Apple

A worker with the Times Square Alliance sanitation crew shovels snow in New York yesterday as a spell of freezing weather hit parts of the USA Picture: Seth Wenig/ap

£100m paid out on maternity negligence

NEARLY £100 million has been paid out by NHS Scotland in maternity negligence claims over the past five years – even as the country records the lowest birth rate since records began, a Herald investigation has revealed. Freedom of Information data...

Dragon slayers

EAGER to prove themselves following a poor first half, Scotland came out fighting at half-time in their Six Nations match against Wales yesterday – stunning the crowd in Cardiff with a 26-23 victory.

£843,000: The cost of scrapped digital ID scheme

THE UK Government’s scrapped mandatory digital ID scheme cost taxpayers £843,743 before ministers were forced into a U-turn, The Herald can reveal. The scheme, originally pitched as a new app to prove people’s right to work and access services, was...

King Charles: ‘Let me state clearly, the law must take its course’

THE King has said “the law must take its course” after expressing his “deepest concern” over the arrest of his brother Andrew Mountbatten-windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Andrew was taken into custody on his 66th birthday...

Double honour for caring couple

Garreth and Nicola Wood, Scots co-founders of Kids Operating Room, after both being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle yesterday for services to health and charity

‘No-one could justify spending £120 for dinner on a Monday night in Glasgow, and so I left with my tail between my legs’

Being Gordon Ramsay, Netflix, available now *** GORDON Ramsay has spoken of the “painful” decision to close his first restaurant in Scotland, adding that he left Glasgow “with my tail between my legs”. The chef opened Amaryllis inside the luxury One...

Scottish civil servants rarely at the office despite target

CIVIL servants are rarely working in person in Scottish Government buildings despite being set a 40% hybrid working target, The Herald can reveal. More than 9,000 core staff working for the Scottish Government were told to return to the office for at...

Warning of ‘corridor care dangers’ at Scots hospitals

HOSPITAL corridor care has been described as “dangerous” as new figures reveal a Scots A&E department was 225% over-capacity. Anger has been growing within the health service over the number of patients being treated in corridors across the...

Mauled enemy

SCOTLAND soared to the top of the Six Nations table yesterday with a triumphant and convincing 31-20 victory over the Auld Enemy at Murrayfield. The match was a humbling experience for the English side, with their Grand Slam hopes scuppered and Six...

Ministers urged to ban social media for under-16s

SOCIAL media should be banned for under-16s in Scotland and schools should lock away phones amid warnings that dangerous online habits among children amounts to a “public health emergency”, a report warns. A hard-hitting report from think tank Common...

Helmet tribute athlete banned

THE biggest controversy of the Milancortina 2026 Winter Olympics came to a head yesterday morning, as Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych was banned from competing. Heraskevych, who was his country’s flagbearer at the opening ceremony, wished to compete...

Sarwar stands firm over call for PM to step aside

ANAS Sarwar has doubled down on his call for Sir Keir Starmer to quit as Prime Minister, insisting he stands by his intervention despite a fierce backlash from colleagues. In his first public appearance since his attempted putsch fell flat, the...

Starmer all smiles amid pressure to quit

SCOTTISH Labour MPS have rallied behind Sir Keir Starmer despite Anas Sarwar calling for the Prime Minister to resign. Sir Keir dismissed claims of a feud with the Scottish Labour leader as he tried to bring his party back under a united front. The...

Inside story: Why Sarwar took the nuclear option on Starmer

ANAS Sarwar’s decision to call on Sir Keir Starmer to quit was, a senior Scottish Labour source insists, something the Holyrood leader had been “wrestling with” for some time. Yes, this was about the growing scandal around Lord Mandelson’s appointment...

Our pledge was to keep Highland issues in the spotlight – now we are back

TODAY, The Herald launches a new series revisiting an issue experts argue has serious implications for Scotland’s future economic prosperity. It has been two years since we published The New Highland Clearances, investigating the factors that are...

How to avoid the scam epidemic hitting Scotland

A COLLECTION of experts from education and business have called on Scotland’s political parties to commit to an urgent review of language learning in their manifestos for the 2026 Holyrood election. The University of Stirling has launched a new...

Anger as tourist tax plans snub the Fringe

ORGANISERS of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have criticised council leaders for snubbing the world-famous event in its spending plans for the city’s new tourist tax. The Fringe Society has expressed dismay that the event did not get a single mention...

‘It was a mistake to consider him capable of being US ambassador’ – Anas Sarwar

ANAS Sarwar has questioned Sir Keir Starmer’s judgment over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the United States, despite knowing of his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. The Scottish Labour leader said...

Starmer faces growing Labour unrest over Mandelson

SIR Keir Starmer knew about Lord Peter Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he appointed him ambassador to the US, but claimed the peer “lied repeatedly” about the extent of the relationship. In a sign of...

Trans jail inmates are ‘serious risk’ to women, says ex-chief

A FORMER prison governor has warned placing transgender prisoners in the female estate poses a “serious risk” to vulnerable women. Rhona Hotchkiss, the former prison governor of HMP Cornton Vale, a female-only jail which has been closed, provided an...

Mandelson reported to police in Epstein storm

LORD Mandelson has been reported to the police over allegations he shared marketsensitive information with financier Jeffrey Epstein. The latest tranche of documents released by the US Department of Justice, known commonly as the Epstein files,...

Charity trek from the heart

Glasgow man Fraser Wilson, who received a heart transplant at Clydebank’s NHS Golden Jubilee, has raised more than £11,000 for homelessness charity Crisis, following his 110km trek across the Sahara in November

New folk in town

FIVE finalists took to the Drygate Brewery stage yesterday to compete in Celtic Connections’ Battle of the Folk Bands 2026 final, presented by Hands Up for Trad. The competition showcases the very best emerging bands on Scotland’s traditional music...

Complaint is lodged against Archbishop

CATHOLIC parishioners have lodged an official complaint with the Church’s leaders over the conduct of the Archbishop of Glasgow, William Nolan. The move, believed to be unprecedented in recent times, follows a bitter dispute between members of St...

‘Scotland is a better country because of Jim Wallace’

FORMER deputy first minister Jim Wallace has died after suffering complications as a result of surgery, his family has said. Lord Wallace, who served as Holyrood’s first ever deputy first minister, was undergoing a procedure at the Royal Infirmary of...

Outdated GP IT systems are ‘putting patients at risk’

SCOTLAND’S frustrated GPS have condemned “stagnant” IT systems that take 20 minutes to switch on and cannot communicate safely across the NHS, which they say is putting patient safety at risk. The Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland (RCGP)...

ART ATTACK

DOZENS of leading Scottish cultural figures are throwing their weight behind a new campaign to secure more support for the arts in the next term of the Scottish Parliament. Stars of stage, screen, comedy, visual arts and live music are demanding a...

Hathaway in tears as she mourns designer Valentino

Actress Anne Hathaway and husband Adam Schulman, left, attend the funeral of fashion designer Valentino in Rome, Italy. Hathaway, who was in tears at the event, wore a black Valentino coat with a ruffled trim at the collar and hem. Actress and model...

‘Europe looks lost’ on Russia response, says Zelenskyy

UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelenskyyy has criticised his European allies for what he portrayed as the continent’s slow and inadequate response to Russia’s invasion as a Us-led peace deal moves closer. Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos,...

Gale Force One

US President Donald Trump feels the chill as he disembarks Air Force One at Zurich airport for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday. The annual meeting of political and business leaders comes amid tensions between the United States...

Cool hand Catherine

Catherine, Princess of Wales tries out curling as she and Prince William meet the Team GB and Paralympics GB Curling teams ahead of the Winter Olympic Games in Italy, at the National Curling Academy in Stirling. The couple visited Stirling and Falkirk...

Starmer bids to calm row as crisis over Greenland deepens

SIR Keir Starmer said he does not believe Donald Trump is genuinely considering using military force to seize Greenland. In an emergency press conference from Downing Street, the Prime Minister attempted to calm fears of a dramatic escalation in the...