Reform UK election candidate works as a diversity champion
Plus: Get ready for Clooney spotting; 'summer of disruption' at airport; and Robotarium funding row
Reform UK candidate runs diversity training courses which her party wants scrapped
Reform UK’s top candidate in the Lothians runs courses promoting diversity in the workplace despite her party promising to scrap such work in councils and the NHS.
Angela Ross is in line to become an MSP as Reform UK’s top candidate on the Lothians regional list - given the party’s consistent high polling - and is the party’s candidate for Edinburgh Eastern, Musselburgh and Tranent in the Scottish Parliament election on 7 May.
She is the co-founder of Sub 10 Ltd, a company providing employers with compliance training, including diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) courses.
The company ran diversity training for Northumbria Police in 2020, and Ms Ross delivered a talk promoting National Inclusion Week in 2022, including a section on “unconscious bias” and how to identify protected characteristics.
Details of her diversity work were reported in The Daily Telegraph and have been independently verified by The Inquirer.
Nigel Farage has said he would scrap diversity training on public bodies, claiming it would save £7bn a year. Official figures suggest the UK Government spent just £27m on DEI work in 2022-23.
Reform UK now says Ms Ross “shares our view that many diversity, equity and inclusion programmes have gone too far, becoming bureaucratic, divisive and often ineffective. Having seen these initiatives from the inside, she is well placed to understand their shortcomings. Reform UK’s position is clear: We support equality under the law and merit-based opportunity, but we oppose costly, box-ticking exercises that do not deliver real results.”
Ms Ross declined to comment when contacted by The Inquirer.
With widespread calls for tactical voting to stop Reform UK, there is no consistent advice for how to do this in the Lothians. Reform are not expected to challenge for any constituency seats here, but are seen as likely to win one or two seats on the regional list, which is designed to reward parties who attract significant numbers of votes without winning any first-past-the-post constituency seats. Some suggest, therefore, avoiding giving your list vote to parties that are already dominant locally, and instead voting for ‘smaller’ parties who best align with your views. However, this can be hard to predict. Forward Democracy, the grassroots campaign that supported tactical voting against Reform UK in the Gorton byelection in Manchester, are yet to offer advice for seats in Edinburgh on their campaign site StopReformUK.vote.
YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING
CLOONEY SPOTTING: Keep your eyes peeled for celebrities on Thursday when George Clooney, Sir Bob Geldof and Rob Brydon are in town for the British Business Awards. Last year’s awards raised £1.2m for the homelessness charity Social Bite. The awards night is once again being held at the EICC. Guest stars to have appeared in previous years include Leonardo DiCaprio and Sting.
ROBOT (FUNDING) WARS: The chief executive of the National Robotarium, based at Heriot-Watt University’s campus at Riccarton, has dramatically quit in a funding row. Stewart Miller, who was previously chief technology officer at the UK Government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, announced his resignation on LinkedIn, over the university’s failure to back a bid for up to £7.5m funding from his previous employer. He accused the university of “(undermining) all of my efforts over five years to establish and grow the National Robotarium to the position of respect and prominence it now has in the UK and in Europe”. Heriot-Watt said it was “fully committed to the continued success of the National Robotarium” and the decision was taken after “careful consideration to ensure alignment with requirements and compliance with funding regulations”.
FUTURE OF THE TRUTH: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is to address the subject of the future of the truth at an event in Edinburgh. The Internet entrepreneur will be the star speaker at DataFest 2026 at the Assembly Rooms on 27-28 May.
LADS’ INSTITUTE LISTED: The former Lads’ Institute at Ratcliffe Terrace, Causewayside, has been awarded Category C listed status. The distinctive Arts and Crafts building was built between 1906 and 1907 as a recreational club. Proposals to demolish it to make way for student housing were rejected by the city council last year.
24HR GAMBLING PEOPLE: A former Pizza Hut premises on Hanover Street would be turned into a 24-hour-a-day casino under plans submitted to the city council. The applicants Luxury Leisure already operate a round-the-clock Admiral Casino on Shandwick Place.
CANNES DO: Film Edinburgh - the office which helps filmmakers find locations, crews and facilities in southeast Scotland - has been nominated for a global award for its work supporting the shooting of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein in Edinburgh and East Lothian. The winner of the Film Commission of the Year will be announced at the Screen's Global Production Awards 2026 during the Cannes Film Festival next month.
TRAM AD BANS: One of the UK’s biggest engineering firms has told MPs how it has been blocked from advertising on the city’s trams due to its work with military defence systems. Giving evidence to the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee, Mark Stead, senior vice-president for radar and advanced targeting at Leonardo, said the city council had stopped the trams from carrying ads for apprentices at its base at the city’s Crewe Toll. “The term defence sometimes carries a stigma,” he said. “As we said earlier, a national resilience conversation has to happen and it’s starting, I think, but it’s going to gather pace and needs to because people, at the individual, local and societal level, need to feel and understand what resilience really means.”
HERITAGE HERO: Tributes have been paid to city conservationist Oliver Barratt following his death at the age of 84. The Cockburn Association described him as “one of the most influential figures in the conservation of Edinburgh’s historic environment during the late twentieth century.” Among his achievements, he is credited with resisting large-scale demolition in the Southside between the early-1970s and early-1990s, and giving communities a stronger voice in the planning process.
Pic of the week
THE BUSINESS
Capital flights facing disruption within weeks
Edinburgh Airport Chief Executive Gordon Dewar’s warning of the growing risk of travel disruption due to the war in Iran, and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has highlighted a vicious circle of supply chain circumstances.
The UK depends heavily on imported jet fuel, with around a quarter sourced from Kuwait alone with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also major suppliers. This concentration leaves the UK as the most exposed nation in Europe, exacerbated by our closure of the Grangemouth refinery which once refined the bulk of jet fuel for our airports.
Scotland must now depend on four refineries in England, which in turn provides a lower capacity than most competitor nations.
Gordon Dewar said disruption was almost certain from June unless a solution was found quickly: “Obviously everyone’s trying to work out what’s going on and as it stands, with the strait still being closed, then that disruption is growing. It’s not getting any less. I wouldn’t tell people to not book or cancel at the moment. I think that would be an overreaction.”
Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, confirmed the over-reliance on exports from Kuwait and the wider Gulf and warned that even a modest disruption, affecting 10% to 20% of supply, could force airlines to reduce capacity. He is quoted by the Guardian as saying: “Nobody is willing to give us any assurances into June or July. But if there’s a risk to 10% or 20% of the fuel supply in June, July or August, then we and all other airlines would have to start looking at cancelling some flights or taking some capacity out.”
Industry website Supply Chain Digital said: “If disruption to fuel flows continues into the summer, the question may shift from when UK flights could start being cancelled to how widespread those cancellations become.”
Edinburgh Airport flies to 155 destinations around the world, through 37 airlines which carry almost 16 million passengers a year. Long haul destinations – such as flights to USA and Asia – are likely to see least disruption while domestic flights are most at risk. Flights within Europe with high frequency, such as flights to Paris or Amsterdam, are more likely to see some cancellations, given the alternatives provides by the frequency of the service.
The Airport announced that it delivered £2.7 billion in economic value last year, supporting some 44,000 jobs in Scotland.
FIRST BID: Edinburgh’s Business Improvement District company, Essential Edinburgh, has become the first BID in Scotland to complete the rigorous evaluation process to become a Certified B Corporation™ based on social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. It already enjoys both British BIDs and Scotland’s Improvement Districts Accreditation. Emily Campbell Johnston, Senior Manager for Marketing & Communications at Essential Edinburgh said the company has always put our members and city centre community at the heart of all decision making. We were established to be a collaborative organisation, driven forward through meaningful partnerships for the benefit and betterment of Edinburgh City Centre for employers, workers, residents and visitors.”
HAMPDEN SOAR: Edinburgh-based Hampden Bank broke through £1 billion of client deposits during 2025, up 13% to £1.12 billion. Loans and advances also an increase, up almost ten per cent to £640 million. The Bank made a pre-tax profit of £7 million, down from a little over £8 million the previous year. CEO Tracey Davidson maintained the bank remained on course to achieve its strategic target of £20 million pre-tax profit by 2030.
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
FIRE FEST: If you are quick, you can still grab tickets for this year’s Beltane Fire Festival on Calton Hill on Thursday from 7.30pm. Welcome the arrival of summer with fire, dramatic storytelling and ancient ritual.
BEHIND THE DOOR: The city’s grassroots arts festival, Hidden Door, has announced its lineup for its “last shift” at the abandoned Paper Factory on the west of the city on 3-7 June. More than 100 creatives will present live music, immersive art installations, dance performances, poetry and unique collaborations over the weekend.
BRIGHT LEGACY: The Dovecot is to mark five years since the death of one of Scotland’s greatest modern painters with a special exhibition Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in Colour from 20 June to 14 November. As well as showcasing her fascination with colour, a central focus will be her collaborations with Dovecot Studios across more than 50 years which produced more than 30 tapestries and hand-tufted rugs.
QUICK BITES
PIZZA THE ACTION: A New York inspired pizza kitchen has opened at Bonnie & Wild at the St James Quarter. Flùr is the brainchild of Ivan Stein, co-founder of The Gannet, who took inspiration from the pizzerias of the Big Apple, and has consulted global pizza consultant Anthony Falco for his support in developing the pizza recipe and flavours.
OTTOLENGHI FIRST: Renowned chef Yotam Ottolenghi is to open his first Scottish restaurant on George Street this autumn, overseen by Scottish-born executive head chef Neil John Campbell.
CAFÉ CRÈME: The Boardwalk Beach Club at Marine Drive in Silverknowes, next to the Cramond foreshore, was named Best Café at the recent Scotland’s Business Show Awards.