Nicola Sturgeon making last major speech as Scotland’s first minister – UK politics live

Key events

Sturgeon says social media is threat to democracy because it makes rational decision making much harder

Sturgeon says she does not normally agree with Tony Blair, but she thought he was right when he said recently that social media was a “plague” on democracy.

She says social media forces people “to speak first and think later”. It encourages polarisation, and breaks down the distinction between fact and opinion, she says.

She says it makes rational decision making much harder, and it “often leads politicians to think that quite extreme positions are the view of the majority when they are most definitely not”.

And it also leads to politicians facing abuse, she says. She says politics has always been tough, and should be tough.

But social media is creating an environment that frankly, is harsher and more hostile, particularly for women and those from minority communities than at any time in my political career.

She goes on:

I am firmly of the view that if [social media] continues to dominate and shape – or rather mis-shape – in the way that it does know, if we continue to allow the negatives to outweigh the positives, we do risk destroying our ability to address the massive era-defining issues that the world currently faces.

That is why it is essential to find a peaceful and civil way of resolving differences, she says.

Sturgeon says SNP leadership contest moment for party to 'renew' and it will emerge 'in strong position'

Sturgeon says the SNP leadership election has been “somewhat fracticious”.

But this is a moment for the SNP to “change, refresh and renew”, she says.

The party is electing a new leader “from a position of electoral strength”.

But it has to be careful it does not “throw the baby out with the bathwater”, he says.

She says she is firmly of the view that her party will emerge from this “in a strong position”.

Nicola Sturgeon's speech to RSA

Nicola Sturgeon is now delivering what is being billed as her last major speech as Scotland’s first minister. Her successor will be announced a week today.

There is a live feed at the top of the blog.

Privileges committee receives submission from Johnson about Partygate inquiry

The Boris Johnson submission, setting out why he thinks he did not commit a contempt of parliament in what he told MPs about Partygate, has now been received by the privileges committee, a source close to the process has revealed.

Jane Merrick from the i and Lizzy Buchan from the Mirror are also hearing that we may not get the Boris Johnson dossier to the Commons privileges committee until tomorrow.

James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, has announced that he will meet the EU’s Maroš Šefčovič on Friday to formally adopt the Windsor framework, the revised version of the Northern Ireland protocol, PA Media reports.

Mick Lynch says next week's rail strikes still on, despite deal with Network Rail, because dispute with train firms continuing

In a statement about the settlement with Network Rail, Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, stressed that the union’s dispute with the train operating companies was still on. But he said he hoped this could lead to the government allowing them to make a better offer.

Lynch said:

Strike action and the inspiring solidarity and determination of members has secured new money and a new offer which has been clearly accepted by our members and that dispute is now over.

Our dispute with the train operating companies remains firmly on and our members’ recent highly effective strike action across the 14 train companies has shown their determination to secure a better deal.

If the government now allows the train companies to make the right offer, we can then put that to our members, but until then the strike action scheduled for March 30 and April 1 will take place.

The ball is in the government’s court.

RMT votes to accept Network Rail pay offer

Members of the RMT union have voted to accept a pay offer from Network Rail, my colleague Gwyn Topham reports.

Jeffrey Donaldson says DUP will vote against NI protocol deal on Wednesday

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, has said that its eight MPs will vote against the deal to revise the Northern Ireland protocol on Wednesday.

But the party has been engaged in an extensive consultation on the proposal, and in his statement Donaldson said that voting against was indicative of the party’s “current” position. He said that the deal represented progress in some areas and that the DUP was still seeking “further clarification, reworking and change”.

He said:

Since the announcement that the “Stormont brake” is to be debated and voted upon in parliament on Wednesday there have been a number of indications that this vote will be read as indicative of current positions on the wider Windsor framework package.

Our party officers, the only decision-making mechanism in our party on these matters, met this morning and unanimously agreed that, in the context of our ongoing concerns and the need to see further progress secured, whilst continuing to seek clarification, change and reworking, that our members of parliament would vote against the draft statutory instrument on Wednesday.

We will continue to work with the government on all the outstanding issues relating to the Windsor framework package to try to restore the delicate political balances within Northern Ireland and to seek to make further progress on all these matters.

Some Tory Brexiters have said that the position of the DUP would be crucial in deciding whether or not they could back the deal, and so this decision will increase the chance of some Conservatives voting against the deal too.

There is no prospect of Rishi Sunak losing, because Labour will vote with the government. But a large revolt would undermine his authority, and revive claims that party divisions on Brexit are irreconcilable.

Jeffrey Donaldson with other politicians from Northern Ireland at the White House last week, listening to Joe Biden at a St Patrick’s Day event.
Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

No 10 backs Mordaunt in saying Tories should not be trying to obstruct work of privileges committee

Downing Street has backed Penny Mordaunt, leader of the Commons, in urging Conservatives not to attack the privileges committee’s investigation into Boris Johnson. The PM’s spokesperson told journalists this morning:

We think this is a committee that’s carrying out a function asked to by parliament, it’s a parliamentary matter, and the leader of the house set out how we would want parliamentarians to engage with it.

Some Conservatives believe the inquiry is rigged against Johnson, and some of the coverage in pro-Tory papers has amplified this view. Conservative Post, an obscure Tory website, is urging its readers to send a standardised email the four Conservative MPs who sit on the committee expressing their “deep concern and disappointment” about the MP’s participation in the “Labour-led investigation” and urging them to resign from the committee to protect their “integrity”.

Peter Cruddas, a former Tory treasurer who was given a peerage by Boris Johnson even though the House of Lords Appointments Commission expressed propriety concerns, has also been using his Twitter feed to attack the inquiry. He posted this this morning.

Lord Cruddas also heads the Conservative Democratic Organisation, which argues for more grassroots democracy in the party but which is widely seen as a closet ‘bring back Johnson as leader’ campaign.

Mordaunt seemed to be referring to Cruddas in the Commons on Thursday last week when she urged all parliamentarians to respect the work being down by the privileges committee. She said:

This house asked the committee to do this work. We referred this matter to the committee for it to consider; we asked it to do this work and to do it well, and it should be left to get on with it.

That is the will of this house, and I think a very dim view will be taken of any member who tries to prevent the committee from carrying out this serious work, or of anyone from outside the house who interferes.

On a personal level, an even dimmer view will be taken of anyone from the other place [the House of Lords] who attempts to do similar.