Race for Holyrood: Your Scottish election briefing for Monday, April 26

A light-hearted look at the Scottish election campaign trail.

Soapbox

@NicolaSturgeon: “Best wishes to businesses opening up today. Recent months have been tough, but your sacrifices have helped save lives – thank you. To those heading to shops/cafes/pubs today – enjoy! But please take care and respect staff asking you to take precautions for your own safety.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon took a moment away from the election campaign trail to post this tweet marked a major relaxation of Covid restrictions across Scotland.

Caption This

Do you have a good caption of this photo of Douglas Ross enjoying a pint as pubs across Scotland reopened on Monday?

Let us know in the comments.

#FakeNews?

Scottish Conservative Party leader Douglas Ross enjoys a pint in Edinburgh. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Both the SNP and the Scottish Conservatives have pledged significant sums to the NHS as part of their manifestos, stating they would pass on any cash received from Westminster as a result of spending increases on the English NHS to the Scottish health service.

In their manifestos, the SNP pledged £2.5 billion by the end of the parliament and the Tories £2bn by 2025/26.

However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) believes both parties have "almost certainly underestimated the cost of the pledge", saying that for Scottish spending to keep pace, it would likely cost the Scottish Government £3bn extra by the end of the parliament.

For the headline figures of £2.5bn and £2bn to sufficient, spending on the NHS in England would have to "virtually grind to a halt", with those figures unlikely to cover rising demands and costs within NHS Scotland, the IFS said.

In short, if in power both parties would likely need to spend more than planned, potentially impacting other parts of their budget.

Campaign Trail

•In a break from traditional campaigning techniques, the Scottish Greens have begun offering Scottish tubs of ice cream. The party says the sweet treat, which comes with a tangy lime swirl and chunks of coconut shortbread, is suitable for both vegan and non-vegans. But, lest the Greens be accused of bribing voters, the party says each tub costs a whopping £6.50, including free delivery in Glasgow.

•Party leaders were hunkered down on Monday, perhaps preparing for Tuesday’s Channel 4 debate – their last such opportunity to put their case to television viewers before next week’s vote. Those who did raise their head above the parapet took the chance to toast the reopening of Scottish pubs with a quiet outdoor pint. STV bosses will no doubt also be watching the Channel 4 event closely. Their own leaders’ debate peaked at 429,000 viewers two weeks ago, compared to just 419,000 who tuned in live to BBC Scotland to watch the first debate back in March. A further 58,000 Scots did, however, watch live on the BBC News channel, while a total of 160,000 people watched across the UK.

Battleground

Dumbarton

•Winner (2016): Labour

•Second Place (2016): SNP

•Swing to lose: 0.16%

The road to an SNP majority runs straight through seats like Dumbarton, as do Scottish Labour’s hope of forming the main opposition in Holyrood.

Jackie Baillie has held the seat at every single Scottish Parliament election since 1999. But after returning with a comfortable majority of more than 6,500 in 2003, Ms Baillie’s grip on Dumbarton has been slipping ever since.

The rising tide of SNP support in the constituency vote threatens to wash away what remains of her majority. The Labour Party veteran came ahead of her 2016 SNP challenger by just 109 votes, making the seat the most marginal in the whole of Scotland.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.