In the headlines
The SNP’s executive committee will today decide a timetable for the leadership race to replace Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland’s first minister. The stakes are high, says Politico: given the party’s current stranglehold on Scottish Westminster seats, this election could “decide who runs the UK and whether 5.5 million citizens stay part of it”. British Gas owner Centrica more than tripled its profits to a record £3.3bn in 2022. The firm, which supplies energy to more than seven million UK households, says it benefited from soaring wholesale energy prices as a result of the Ukraine war. Some 38% of Brits think “the world is controlled by a secretive elite”, according to a new YouGov poll for UnHerd. The most conspiratorial are Brexit Party voters, 54% of whom reckon we are at the mercy of a globalist cabal, followed by Labour (42%), the Tories (34%) and the Lib Dems (32%).