Welcome to The Press and Journal’s morning politics briefing — everything you need to know about politics in your region and across the country, before you start your day.
Top Stories
- A senior Conservative councillor can today be unmasked as the man behind an anonymous anti-SNP troll account that coached unsuspecting members of the public to “tactically vote” for him in May’s Scottish Parliament election.
- Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison is urging young people starting out in a new job to apply for help to tide them over until they get their first wage.
- An adviser to Nicola Sturgeon has claimed the rise in Covid cases linked to Scots football fans at the Euros shows the country risks scoring an “own goal”.
- Boris Johnson has been accused of leaving thousands of EU nationals “in limbo” over their post-Brexit immigration status.
- Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has announced the birth of his second child after an ambulance journey from Elgin to Aberdeen.
What’s on today?
- Activists are due to bring more than 1,000 cans and bottles to the Scottish Parliament to mark the one-year countdown to the launch of Scotland’s deposit return system.
- The UK Government begins to reduce its contribution to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, also known as “furlough”, from today.
In case you missed it
- Trans rights: How gender recognition reform became one of Scotland’s most heated debates
- Coronavirus testing and tracing systems are working “much better” in Scotland than England despite capacity concerns, according to an expert.
- Nearly 2,000 people with lab-confirmed Covid-19 attended at least one event marking Scotland’s Euros campaign while infectious with the disease.
- Scotland’s transport minister has joined Aberdeen Airport’s owners in launching a strategy to achieve net zero for direct emissions by mid-2030s.
- Truce agreed in UK-EU ‘sausage war’ but questions remain over lasting solution.