Inside Politics: Nicola Sturgeon gets to tell her side of the Salmond story

It’s hard to know who’s getting more column inches at the moment – Meghan Markle, Nicola Sturgeon or Rishi Sunak. We eagerly wait to hear from all three. The Duchess of Sussex is set to raise the issue of race in her upcoming Oprah interview, as she reveals her time in the royal household was made “almost unsurvivable”. Speaking of survival, Sturgeon will be fighting for her political life when she reveals her side of the Alex Salmond saga this morning. And Sunak is hoping his tell-all Budget statement at lunchtime will help businesses survive the stormy months ahead.

Inside the bubble

Political commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for today:

The morning of the Budget is usually dominated by the build-up, but this time we have Nicola Sturgeon’s 9am appearance at the Alex Salmond inquiry. Rishi Sunak will present his Budget at 12.30pm. After Keir Starmer’s response, the chancellor will answer questions from MPs before fielding journalists’ questions at a 5pm press conference.

Daily briefing

FIRE IN THE HOLE: Rishi Sunak has promised to protect jobs using the “full fiscal firepower” of the government ahead of his Budget speech. The big news? The furlough scheme will be extended to the end of September. A fourth grant for the self-employed will be available to claim from April. And Sunak is also set to extend rates relief for business and the £20-a-week top up to universal credit for another six months. Labour response to these teased reveals by saying furlough should have been extended months ago. The party claimed Sunak had only waited to get his “moment in the sun”. What about tax rises? There is a potential row over reported plans to hike tax from the current 19 per cent to 25 per cent, and Sunak is expected to freeze income tax thresholds to push more people into higher bands. There will undoubtedly be more difficult Budgets ahead. Ex-chancellor Philip Hammond said Sunak would have to cut public spending and increase taxes. “We’re going to have to do both.”

JACKET ON A SHOOGLY PEG? Nicola Sturgeon is facing calls to quit before she’s even had the chance to speak this morning. The Scottish Tories want her to resign for “misleading the Scottish people” – and will push for a vote of no confidence in the first minister. The party has put out a “scandal” dossier flagging 38 potential breaches of the ministerial code. The past 24 hours have been very, very bad for Sturgeon. The SNP’s ex-comms director Kevin Pringle and former SNP MSP Duncan Hamilton both wrote to the Holyrood inquiry substantiating Salmond’s claim that he was told the identity of a complainer by one of Sturgeon’s officials in March 2018. Sturgeon told MSPs only last week that “I do not think that happened”. Even more damning is Hamilton’s recollection that Sturgeon did offer to intervene and mediate in the allegations against Salmond. “My clear recollection is that her words were ‘If it comes to it, I will intervene’.” Sturgeon previously told MSPs: “I did not seek to intervene in it at any stage.”

LUMPY AND BUMPER: Matt Hancock has insisted the government remains “on track” to meet its target of offering a vaccine to all adults by the end of July – but admitted there are some supply problems at the moment. “Although the day-to-day figures of supply are lumpy, we have some bumper weeks ahead later this month,” said the health secretary. The minister revealed that the hunt for the person infected with the new Brazilian “variant of concern” has been narrowed down to just 379 households in south-east England. A break in the case came from the identification of a batch of home testing kits in the area. In terms of public health risks, the government is now thinking beyond Covid. Boris Johnson wants a public information campaign to crack down on middle-class cocaine use, according to The Times. Sunak, incidentally, has admitted he was “a total Coke addict” – Mexican Coca-Cola, that is. Special Coca-Cola with more sugar. The hipster choice.

MONSTER SPLASH: Not everyone is delighted about Boris Johnson’s reported plan to set up a charity to raise funds and splash some cash on an “exquisite” refurbishment of Downing Street’s slightly shabby interiors. Sir Alistair Graham, the former chair of the committee on standards in public life, said the idea was “monstrous”, adding: “I would quite like to set a charity up to refurbish my flat but … that’s not what charities are for.” No 10 refused to confirm or deny reports the PM and Carrie Symonds are considering options for how any spending over the £30,000 annual limit could be covered. “Matters concerning any work on Downing Street … are covered in the Cabinet Office annual report,” said Johnson’s spokeswoman Allegra Stratton. Meanwhile, the PM talked up a joint bid between the UK and Ireland to host the 2030 World Cup. “We are very, very keen to bring football home,” he said. Sunak will reportedly pledge £2.8m to kick-start the bid in today’s Budget.

STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN: Keir Starmer stands accused of failing to listen to grassroots Labour activists. Ian Lavery and Jon Trickett, shadow ministers under Corbyn, complained about his reluctance to back progressive tax rises. Starmer may get more of a fright when he looks at the latest Savanta ComRes poll, which shows Labour slipping seven points behind the Tories. Supportive MP Ben Bradshaw said only three Labour colleagues have called for tax rises and they didn’t bother “turning up to make their case” at the latest PLP meeting. Bradshaw says there was clear backing for Labour’s strategy to support tax rises only after the recovery is under way. What about the Labour ‘keep quiet’ strategy on Brexit? MPs heard about more disruption problems faced by British seafood businesses on Tuesday. Some are filling out more than 70 pages of paperwork to export a single lorry load to the EU. Experts also told a select committee some businesses were now seriously considering relocating to the continent.

SPRING IN HIS STEP: Joe Biden said he expects to take delivery of enough Covid vaccines for all US adults by the end of May – two months earlier than anticipated – and he pushed states to get at least one dose into the arms of teachers by the end of March. The US president also announced that drug giant Merck will help produce rival Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) newly approved one-shot vaccine. Yet state leaders across the country are now moving to relax Covid restrictions – despite the warnings from national scientists that it’s too early to do so. In Texas, Republican governor Greg Abbott moved to lift his state’s mask-wearing mandate and a host of other curbs. It comes as a US Catholic church body urged its followers to avoid the vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson – alleging that it was “developed, tested and produced using abortion-derived cell lines”.

On the record

“Whilst we don’t rule out a localised approach to outbreaks, we are going to move down the roadmap as a nation across England.”

Matt Hancock says there will a national approach to lockdown easing in 2021.

From the Twitterati

“There is no longer any doubt that Nicola Sturgeon lied to the Scottish Parliament and broke the Ministerial Code. She must resign.”

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross calls on the FM to go...

“On top of the devastating legal advice revealed tonight, comes [documents] confirming Salmond was told who one of the complainants was by one of Sturgeon’s officials.”

…and Andrew Neil thinks she’s in real trouble.

Essential reading

Vince Cable, The Independent: My advice to Rishi Sunak – don’t rush deficit reduction

Femi Oluwole, The Independent: Time for an apology for those who dismissed us as ‘Remoaners’

Alex Massie, The Spectator: What is Nicola Sturgeon hiding?

Laura Barron-Lopez, Politico: Joe Biden’s relationship with Bernie Sanders remains strong

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