Dumfries and Galloway leader quits ahead of 'no confidence' vote

The leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council quit less than an hour ahead of a 'no confidence' vote on Monday.
In a note to council officials, Tory council leader Gail Macgregor said she had decided to resign as leader with 'the heaviest of hearts'.
'It has been an absolute privilege to serve the people of Dumfries and Galloway as leader of the council for the past 26 months,' she said.
'During this time I have always tried to lead with a collaborative approach, and I will always do so for the good of the people we serve and the services we provide.'
A special meeting will take place on Monday afternoon in which members are expected to choose a new administration.
The Tory group, with Macgregor at the helm, has led the administration in Dumfries and Galloway over the past two years since the collapse of a Labour/SNP coalition in 2023.
However, that is now likely to come to an end on Monday.
More than half of the members of the local authority signed a call for a special meeting to 'call for the removal of [Macgregor and deputy leader Malcolm Johnstone] with a motion of no confidence'.
It has signatures from 22 local councillors, and it comes two weeks after seven Tory councillors left the Conservative group to form two separate groups of their own.
It has left the Conservatives with just nine remaining councillors – down from a previous group of 16 – and it prompted other parties to request the meeting.
However, before councillors got the chance to consider the motion to remove Councillor MacGregor from her post, she resigned from the role voluntarily.
Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

The Independent

44 minutes ago

• The Independent

Tourist taxes: be careful what you wish for, because holidaymakers have choices too

In these divided times, seeing multi-party agreement is uplifting. The setting: Glasgow city administration committee on Thursday 19 June. SNP, Labour, Conservatives and Greens joined in voting in favour of the city's visitor levy. From January 2027, people staying in hotels and all other commercial accommodation in Glasgow will pay 5 per cent on top of the bill. Each year, tourists and business travellers will provide £16m for the council to spend on civic improvements and promoting Glasgow. Edinburgh has already decided to charge overnight guests 5 per cent on top of the room rate, starting in July next year. Good to see the two big Scottish cities agreeing on something, too. Back in Glasgow, Ricky Bell of the SNP said there was 'no evidence to suggest that the introduction of a levy would be detrimental to the city'. Free money, then. And (almost) nobody who lives and votes in Glasgow will pay it. What's not to like? A load of locations across Europe and the wider world already have similar tourist taxes. Paris and Rome hardly seem short of tourists, so Mr Bell is surely right: a levy will not deter visitors. At the risk of disrupting such rare unity, I beg to differ. A couple staying in a three-star hotel in the French capital pay £9.50 per night in Paris tourist tax. I shall assume the room itself costs £110, which is what I have been seeing apart from during the Olympics slump last summer. With accommodation tax at 10 per cent in France, the pair will pay just short of 20 per cent in levies – which corresponds to the current rate of VAT in Scotland and the rest of the UK. With their new 5 per cent charge, Edinburgh and Glasgow will leap ahead in the proportion they extract from tourists. By next summer, the 'stealth' visitor tax on foreigners known as air passenger duty will extract £15 for European flights and £102 for North American visitors. It all adds up. Edinburgh and Glasgow are great cities, and share freely with visitors their immense cultural wealth in the shape of world-class museums and galleries. The assumption is that tourist demand is inelastic – the city councils can put on taxes without dampening the desire to visit. I am not so sure. If it were the case, why stop at 5 per cent – let's try 10, or 20? The UK already looks unwelcoming, with a £16 admission fee in the shape of the Electronic Travel Authorisation and a refusal to accept perfectly secure European Union identity cards – disenfranchising around 300 million EU citizens who don't have passports. Edinburgh is a special case. The capital is a huge tourism draw, home to the industry of government and a key business hub. But Glasgow does not enjoy such fortune. If accommodation looks too pricey, visitors from northern England may switch to day trips; other tourists will stay at properties beyond the city's boundaries and the reach of the levy. Either way, the entire spend at a Glasgow property is lost. Another unintended consequence could be that visitors switch to cheaper, characterless budget hotels rather than independent enterprises. Imposing a flat levy across the year looks odd, too. To stretch the season and persuade people to visit off-peak, it would be smarter to have a 15 per cent tax for the four months from the start of June to the end of September, falling to zero for the rest of the year. Fees for visitors are worthwhile if they are substantial and change behaviour The shrewdest tourism tax I have seen in a long while is the brand-new €20 (£17) charge for each passenger arriving on a cruise ship to the Greek islands of Mykonos and Santorini from July to September. Cruise firms are understandably cross that it has been introduced so late in the day. As Paul Ludlow, president of Carnival UK, told me: 'When things are sprung on us late, it's not the way in which we'd like to work.' The principle, though, is sound: 'We really don't need thousands more people arriving for the day and contributing little to the islands' economies, so the least we can do is extract €50,000 from the average ship.' I support every city, region and nation making choices about taxes and tourism. But every tourist has choice, too.

Daily Mail​

2 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

Reform is on course to WIN next General Election, new poll shows - as Nigel Farage's party takes nine-point lead over Labour

Reform UK is now on course to win the next General Election, a shock new poll shows - as they take a stunning nine-point lead over Labour. The voting intention for Nigel Farage 's party's was more than double that of the Tories, who languished in third with 15 per cent, compared to Labour's 25 per cent and Reform's 34 per cent. An Ipsos opinion poll highlighted the rocketing success of the party and rising contempt for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves ' chaotic first year in power. Replicated in a General Election, the figures would give Reform an overwhelming 400 seats in the Commons - with a majority of 200, The Telegraph reports. Figures show that 54 per cent of Labour voters and 48 per cent of Tory voters have changed their support - with a high proportion of defectors from both going to Reform. Farage would become Prime Minister and there would be just 10 Conservative seats, while Labour would be reduced from 403 to 140. 'This poll shows Reform can and will win the next general election,' Farage told the broadsheet. Figures from the polling of 1,180 Brits show Labour's plunging popularity, after winning the 2024 General Election with the biggest majority since Tony Blair. But figures now show him to be the least popular prime minister at this stage of his time in office since records began. Just 19 per cent say they are satisified with the work he is doing - while 73 per cent are dissatisfied. In comparison, after the same amount of time Boris Johnson had an approval raiting of 48 per cent, Blair's was 68 per cent and John Major's was 54 per cent. The Conservatives' polling is also the worst since records began, with only 11 per cent of voters satisfied with Kemi Badenoch's work. Gideon Skinner, senior director of UK politics at Ipsos, told The Telegraph: 'Reform UK has continued to build on its success, helped by high levels of enthusiasm among its own support and among working-class voters in particular, and taking votes from both Labour and especially the Conservatives, who show little sign of recovery. 'The disappointment with Labour is clear, even among those who voted for the party in 2024.' It comes after the public swing of support tp Reform was dramatically shown in the local elections, scoring victory in a Runcorn by-election on the same night. In a night of jaw-dropping results, Reform UK claimed outright majorities in Staffordshire and Lincolnshire County Councils, toppling long-standing Conservative dominance.

South Wales Guardian

2 hours ago

• South Wales Guardian

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says BBC ‘should not show' Kneecap at Glastonbury

The 45-year-old made the comments after Kneecap member Liam Og O hAnnaidh appeared in court on Wednesday, after being charged for allegedly displaying a flag in support of proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah while saying 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah' at a gig in November last year. Ms Badenoch said in the X post, which was accompanied by an article from The Times that claimed the BBC had not banned the group: 'The BBC should not be showing Kneecap propaganda. 'One Kneecap band member is currently on bail, charged under the Terrorism Act. 'As a publicly funded platform, the BBC should not be rewarding extremism.' The Tory leader of the Opposition has previously called for the group to be banned from Glastonbury, and last year Kneecap won a discrimination case against the UK Government in Belfast High Court after she tried to refuse them a £14,250 funding award when she was a minister. Kneecap took aim at Ms Badenoch in their latest single, The Recap, released just before their headline set at London's Wide Awake festival in May, with the song mocking the politician's attempts to block their arts funding and the Conservative Party's election loss. The BBC should not be showing Kneecap propaganda. One Kneecap band member is currently on bail, charged under the Terrorism Act. As a publicly funded platform the BBC should not be rewarding extremism. — Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) June 21, 2025 On Wednesday, O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was cheered by hundreds of supporters as he arrived with bandmates Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh at Westminster Magistrates' Court in 'Free Mo Chara' T-shirts. During the proceedings, the court heard the 27-year-old is 'well within his rights' to voice his opinions on Israel and Palestine, but the alleged incident at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, is a 'wholly different thing'. O hAnnaidh was released on unconditional bail until his next hearing at the same court on August 20. Following the hearing, the rapper said: 'For anybody going to Glastonbury, you can see us there at 4pm on the Saturday. 'If you can't be there we'll be on the BBC, if anybody watches the BBC. We'll be at Wembley in September. 'But most importantly: free, free Palestine.' The charge came after a counter terrorism police investigation after the historical gig footage came to light, which also allegedly shows the group calling for the deaths of MPs. In April, Kneecap apologised last month to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been 'exploited and weaponised'. In an initial post in response to the charge, Kneecap said: '14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us. — KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) May 22, 2025 'We deny this 'offence' and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction. 'We are not the story, genocide is, as they profit from genocide, they use an 'anti-terror law' against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesn't have a jury. What's the objective? 'To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out. 'Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification. 'The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.' Formed in 2017, the group are known for their provocative lyrics in both Irish and English, and merchandise. Their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live, featuring Grian Chatten from Fontaines DC, and 3Cag. A BBC spokesperson said: 'As the broadcast partner, the BBC will be bringing audiences extensive music coverage from Glastonbury, with artists booked by the festival organisers. 'Whilst the BBC doesn't ban artists, our plans will ensure that our programming will meet our editorial guidelines. Decisions about our output will be made in the lead up to the festival.'