Tory: SNP failing city
Scottish Conservative interim leader Jackson Carlaw has branded the SNP’S first 18 months at the helm of Scotland’s biggest council as an “abject failure”. The Tory MSP argued the Glasgow City Council minority administration has failed in a number of areas, from nursery charges to its response to the Glasgow School of Art fire.
The SNP formed a minority administration in Glasgow after the 2017 elections, rebranding the ruling group of councillors as the “city government”. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have praised the competitors of the Invictus Games at its closing ceremony in Sydney. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are expecting their first baby in spring, both spoke at the end of eight days of sporting competition for injured service personnel. Meghan described her gratitude at being welcomed into the “Invictus family”, and praised the “camaraderie and close-knit sense of community” during the Games.
employees of Topshop boss Sir Philip Green were given seven-figure sums to settle allegations of sexual harassment or bullying, it was claimed yesterday.
The Arcadia chairman’s alleged behaviour included giving women in meetings “lingering hugs”, asking women in meetings if they were “naughty girls” and if they “needed their bottoms slapped” and telling women they were overweight and should go on a diet.
He is also alleged to have flown into rages, abusing both male and female staff in front of colleagues.
Former cabinet minister Lord Hain named Green on Thursday as being at the centre of the allegations after the Daily Telegraph revealed an unidentified tycoon had gone to court to keep the claims secret.
After days of speculation, the Labour peer used parliamentary privilege to reveal Green had taken out an injunction protecting his identity.
Green has since denied “unlawful sexual or racist behaviour”. Meanwhile, BBC Apprentice star Baroness Karren Brady has also been drawn into the scandal, facing calls to explain what she knew about payouts to silence employees.
The Conservative peer, who is a champion of women’s rights in the workplace, is the chair of Taveta, the holding company of Sir Philip’s Arcadia empire. It has been claimed by sources she has known about substantial payouts to employees making sexual and racial harassment claims for several months. Labour MP Jess Phillips said: “I do not know whether Baroness Brady has been kept completely in the dark about this, but she needs to say what she did or what she didn’t know.”
A statement from Baroness Brady is expected tomorrow. Baroness Ros Altmann, who was pensions minister from 2015 to 2016, told how she was “bullied and intimidated” over the course of