LABOUR media minister Ian Murray “will not intervene” to stop controversial cuts to STV News, MSPs were told.
On Monday, broadcasting regulator Ofcom confirmed that it will allow STV to move ahead with plans to remove its dedicated north of Scotland television news programme and axe 28 jobs.
It will be replaced with a single programme from Glasgow, which will include sections devoted to regional news.
Murray, the MP for Edinburgh South, has served as a minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport since he was sacked as Scottish Secretary in September 2025.
During the first session of backbencher FMQs in Holyrood on Tuesday, SNP MSP for Aberdeen Central Jack Middleton raised the issue with John Swinney.
Middleton said: “Yesterday, TV regulator Ofcom announced it had approved controversial plans to end STV’s dedicated news coverage for the north of Scotland.
“Those plans are deeply unpopular and mean my constituents have lost a news institution that they have trusted for decades.
“Broadcasting matters are of course reserved to Westminster, but the Labour media minister, Ian Murray, has assured me he will not intervene on this very issue.
“So what will the First Minister do to hold Ofcom to account for both their conduct throughout this process and for their obligations to protect local news?
“And can I also ask, what steps his government can take to help retain jobs and wider economic activity linked to broadcasting in the north east of Scotland?”
The First Minister replied that he “agreed entirely” with the concerns Middleton raised and that he felt “deep unease” about the “diminution of the STV North news production capability and broadcast, because of the importance of reflecting broadcast interests across the whole of Scotland”.
“I have written to Ofcom and to STV to urge them once again to ensure that they are meeting their obligations to audiences and to dedicated journalists, and reiterate my opposition, my whole-hearted opposition to the decision that Ofcom has made, which I think is ignorant of the needs and the circumstances of the North and the North East of Scotland,” the First Minister added.
Swinney added that Middleton is meeting with Cabinet Secretary for Culture Mairi McAllan and the minister for business and fair work, Tom Arthur, on Wednesday to “establish what further actions” can be taken.
“I assure him the Government will do all that we can to support him in the efforts he has taken forward on behalf of his constituents and those of many other members in the North and North East of Scotland,” the First Minister added.
The newly established session saw 18 questions put to the First Minister by backbenchers in the space of half an hour.
The SNP MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Alex Kerr, asked Swinney about the latest tranche of files related to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US.
Kerr said they “exposed several senior Scottish Labour politicians for maintaining a disturbing and often sycophantic relationship” with the disgraced peer.
It comes after the SNP have called for Douglas Alexander to be sacked as Scottish Secretary over "gushing" WhatsApp messages revealing that Mandelson helped him get selected as a Labour Party candidate in the 2024 General Election.
He asked: “What assessment has the First Minister made of these alarming relationships that have been exposed, and what discussion has the Scottish Government had with the UK Labour Government on the latest release of the deeply chilling Peter Mandelson files?”
Swinney said he had “not had dialogue” with the UK Government on that question, but had asked the Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government to examine engagement with Mandelson to “satisfy ourselves that there had been no circumstances in which information that was material to the public interest in Scotland had been in any way jeopardised by the contact that had existed or the contacts that existed around about Peter Mandelson”.
“I was satisfied with the assessment that was made by the Permanent Secretary in this respect,” the First Minister added.
