The SNP leadership race dominates Scotland’s front pages. The Scottish Mail on Sunday reports Kate Forbes “plans to take a wrecking ball to Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy” by scrapping the bottle return scheme. The paper also says Ms Forbes would block her party’s proposed ban on alcohol advertising, which she fears would undermine the whisky industry.
Scottish ministers have been urged to pause the controversial deposit return scheme in the wake of an investigation by Scotland on Sunday that shows the owners of the company tasked with gathering and sorting billions of bottles and cans every year is a “big climate polluter”. The paper also features a picture of Scotland players preparing for the crucial Six Nations match against France in Paris.
The Sunday Post leads with an interview with Kate Forbes in which she says Scots are “not ready” for another independence referendum. Ms Forbes is running against Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and former community safety minister Ash Regan in the race to replace Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and first minister.
Meanwhile, The Herald reports Muslim leaders have intervened in the SNP leadership contest describing the debate around religious beliefs as “deeply concerning”. The Association of Mosques have expressed alarm about the “tone and tenor” of the leadership race but will not back any candidate, according to the paper.
The Scottish Sun reports SNP leadership contender Ash Regan would let former first minister Alex Salmond into the party if she was elected. Mr Salmond launched his own independence-focused Alba party in March 2021.
The Sunday National says Mr Yousaf is set to “ramp up” his independence campaign by holding regional assemblies across the country. The paper says he has also described the party’s coalition deal with the Scottish Greens as “worth its weight in gold”.
Police interviewed senior SNP members over fraud allegations days before Nicola Sturgeon’s shock resignation, reports the Sunday Mail. The paper says former treasurer Douglas Chapman spoke to detectives and other key figures were contacted in connection with the probe into claims of £600,000 of missing ring-fenced referendum cash – codenamed Operation Branchform.
The main story in the Scottish Daily Express is the discovery of two bodies following a following a major search operation for the missing crew of a tug after it overturned off Greenock in Inverclyde on Friday.
And the Sunday Telegraph says Rishi Sunak is set to ditch Boris Johnson’s NI Protocol Bill, which gives the UK government the power to rip up parts of the current arrangement with the EU, as part of his new deal with Brussels. Writing for the paper, Mr Sunak says the Bill was always a “last resort”.
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