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The vast majority of Scotland’s central belt will remain in Level 2 restrictions as Nicola Sturgeon delayed the easing of COVID measures for many parts of the country.

The first minister said there would be a “slight slowing down” in the lifting of lockdown rules for much of Scotland due to spread of the Indian variant of coronavirus.

Edinburgh and Midlothian, Dundee, East Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, North, South and East Ayrshire, North and South Lanarkshire, Clackmannanshire and Stirling have not yet met the criteria to see restrictions ease, Ms Sturgeon said.

As a result, those areas will remain under Level 2 restrictions.

However, another 18 local authorities will see restrictions ease from Saturday to move down to Level 1 measures.

These are Highland, Argyll & Bute, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire, Moray, Angus, Perth & Kinross, Falkirk, Fife, Inverclyde, East and West Lothian, West Dunbartonshire, Dumfries & Galloway and the Borders.

And Glasgow will move down from Level 3 to Level 2 from midnight on Friday.

More on Covid-19

Under the Scottish government’s COVID route map, the whole of Scotland had been scheduled to move into Level 1 restrictions from next Monday, 7 June.

The country had moved to Level 2 restrictions last month, although a spike in infections – thought to be driven in large part by the Indian variant of the virus – forced ministers to keep the entire Glasgow City Council area in Level 3.

Last week, Ms Sturgeon said Glasgow had an “uncomfortably high” number of COVID cases despite “signs of progress” in limiting infections.

Level 3 restrictions mean pubs, bars and restaurants can’t serve alcohol indoors and must close at 8pm, while gatherings inside other peoples’ homes are barred.

Under Level 2 restrictions, pubs, bars and restaurants are allowed to serve alcohol indoors, six people from three households can meet inside homes and stay overnight, and indoor group exercise classes allowed for over 18s.

And under Level 1 restrictions, there is even greater flexibility on social mixing and all leisure and entertainment businesses – apart from nightclubs – can open.

People are able to travel anywhere in Scotland in Levels 0, 1 or 2 but must not enter a Level 3 or 4 area unless they have a permitted reason like going to work or caring for a vulnerable person.

Ms Sturgeon’s decision to delay the easing of restrictions for much of Scotland will add to pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to postpone a further reopening in England.

Stage four of Mr Johnson’s roadmap for easing coronavirus rules – when the prime minister aims to remove all legal limits on social contact – is scheduled to take place from 21 June.

But there is growing doubt over whether the prime minister will be able to keep to that date due to the spread of the Indian variant – now renamed as the Delta variant by the World Health Organisation – within the UK.

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Badenoch pulls off first conference speech as leader, but it is less clear if this will be her last

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Badenoch pulls off first conference speech as leader, but it is less clear if this will be her last

There’s no question that Kemi Badenoch’s on the ropes after a low-energy first year as leader that has seen the Conservative Party slide backwards by pretty much every metric.

But on Wednesday, the embattled leader came out swinging with a show-stopping pledge to scrap stamp duty, which left the hall delirious. “I thought you’d like that one,” she said with a laugh as party members cheered her on.

A genuine surprise announcement – many in the shadow cabinet weren’t even told – it gave the Conservatives and their leader a much-needed lift after what many have dubbed the lost year.

Politics latest: Stamp duty to be axed under Tories

Ms Badenoch with her husband, Hamish. Pic: PA
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Ms Badenoch with her husband, Hamish. Pic: PA

Ms Badenoch tried to answer that criticism this week with a policy blitz, headlined by her promise on stamp duty.

This is a leader giving her party some red meat to try to help her party at least get a hearing from the public, with pledges on welfare, immigration, tax cuts and policing.

In all of it, a tacit admission from Ms Badenoch and her team that as politics speeds up, they have not kept pace, letting Reform UK and Nigel Farage run ahead of them and grab the microphone by getting ahead of the Conservatives on scrapping net zero targets or leaving the ECHR in order to deport illegal migrants more easily.

Ms Badenoch is now trying to answer those criticisms and act.

At the heart of her offer is £47bn of spending cuts in order to pay down the nation’s debt pile and fund tax cuts such as stamp duty.

All of it is designed to try to restore the party’s reputation for economic competence, against a Labour Party of tax rises and a growing debt burden and a Reform party peddling “fantasy economics”.

She needs to do something, and fast. A YouGov poll released on the eve of her speech put the Conservatives joint third in the polls with the Lib Dems on 17%.

That’s 10 percentage points lower than when Ms Badenoch took power just under a year ago. The crisis, mutter her colleagues, is existential. One shadow cabinet minister lamented to me this week that they thought it was “50-50” as to whether the party can survive.

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(L-R) Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins and shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly. Pic: PA
Image:
(L-R) Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins and shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly. Pic: PA

Ms Badenoch had to do two things in her speech on Wednesday: the first was to try to reassert her authority over her party. The second was to get a bit of attention from the public with a set of policies that might encourage disaffected Tories to look at her party again.

On the first point, even her critics would have to agree that she had a successful conference and has given herself a bit of space from the constant chatter about her leadership with a headline-grabbing policy that could give her party some much-needed momentum.

On the second, the promise of spending control coupled with a retail offer of tax cuts does carve out a space against the Labour government and Reform.

But the memory of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget, the chaos of Boris Johnson’s premiership, and the failure of Sunak to cut NHS waiting lists or tackle immigration still weigh on the Conservative brand.

Ms Badenoch might have revived the room with her speech, but whether that translates into a wider revival around the country is very hard to read.

Ms Badenoch leaves Manchester knowing she pulled off her first conference speech as party leader: what she will be less sure about is whether it will be her last.

I thought she tacitly admitted that to me when she pointedly avoided answering the question of whether she would resign if the party goes backwards further in the English council, Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd elections next year.

“Let’s see what the election result is about,” was her reply.

That is what many in her party are saying too, because if Ms Badenoch cannot show progress after 18 months in office, she might see her party turn to someone else.

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Kemi Badenoch speech: Not dead yet

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Kemi Badenoch speech: Not dead yet

👉Listen to Politics At Sam And Anne’s on your podcast app👈

Sam and Anne break down Kemi Badenoch’s speech to the Conservative party conference in Manchester.

The duo consider:

Did she do enough to dampen the threat of a leadership challenge?

Will her big headline announcement – to abolish stamp duty – cut through with the voters?

Why did she attack some political opponents but not others?

Plus, Sam and Anne briefly reflect on the conference season before MPs return to Westminster next week.

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UK lifts ban on crypto exchange-traded notes as ‘market has evolved’

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UK lifts ban on crypto exchange-traded notes as ‘market has evolved’

UK lifts ban on crypto exchange-traded notes as ‘market has evolved’

The UK has lifted its four-year ban on crypto exchange-traded notes, with analysts predicting the move could grow the UK crypto market by 20%.

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