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Salmond funeral latest and tobacco plans: The Courier political digest for Tuesday October 29

5 need-to-know stories across Scotland and the UK, every afternoon.

Alex Salmond was laid to rest in Aberdeenshire today. Image: PA.
Alex Salmond was laid to rest in Aberdeenshire today. Image: PA.

Good afternoon from The Courier’s politics team, here are your top 5 politics stories making headlines today.

Alex Salmond’s funeral takes place

Alex Salmond’s family say they feel the “grief of a nation and beyond” in a heartfelt tribute to the late first minister as he is laid to rest.

The former SNP leader’s family and close friends gathered at Strichen Parish Church for a private funeral led by local minister Reverend Ian McEwan this afternoon.

His niece told mourners: “Uncle Alex was an important person to many, but to us he was a husband, a brother, an uncle, a colleague and a dear friend.”

Pall bearers with the coffin arriving for the funeral service for former first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond. Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

John Swinney addresses ‘cover up’ row

John Swinney has rejected calls for a judge-led inquiry despite being accused of a “cover up” in a row over his involvement in a probe into whether Nicola Sturgeon breached the ministerial code when she was first minister.

Conservatives and Labour challenged Mr Swinney amid concerns about his dealings with a Scottish Government civil servant who was seconded to help with James Hamilton’s inquiry.

The inquiry cleared then first minister Ms Sturgeon of breaching the code.

Mr Swinney, who set the remit for Mr Hamilton’s inquiry when he was deputy first minister in August 2020, is now facing questions over the actions of the seconded civil servant.

Fornethy House survivors miss out

Payments made to survivors of abuse in care have more than doubled in the past year, figures show, but the number of payouts amounts to less than half of total applications.

Figures released last year showed that in the first 18 months of the scheme’s existence, £32.5 million was paid out.

Fornethy House survivors demonstrating outside the Scottish Parliament

As of June this year, the figure had jumped to £76.7 million, according to statistics released by the Scottish Government on Tuesday.

There is one glaring omission: survivors of Fornethy House in Angus are still not covered, as we reported previously.

Tobacco minimum price proposal

The Scottish Government has said it will “carefully consider” a report which suggests introducing a minimum price for tobacco has the potential to bring about “significant reductions in smoking rates”.

Smoking is linked to 16% of deaths in Scotland, and the report looked at the impact of introducing minimum pricing.

Government figures show 15% of adults were smokers in 2022, with the report indicating a minimum price of 60p per cigarette could reduce smoker numbers by an estimated 16,327.

Tory MP’s drunken sexual misconduct

Former Conservative MP Aaron Bell has been reprimanded by a parliamentary watchdog after it found he had committed “brazen and drunken” sexual misconduct in a House of Commons bar last year.

Parliament’s Standards Commissioner found the former MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme had inappropriately touched a female member of staff while in Stranger’s Bar in December 2023.

Mr Bell stood down as an MP at this year’s general election, in part due to the investigation into his conduct, meaning there are few sanctions available, but an independent panel said it would have recommended suspending him from Parliament for “a significant period” had he still been an MP.

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