The sentencing of Jordan Linden, a former Scottish National Party (SNP) council leader convicted of multiple sexual offenses, comes a day before critical elections for the Scottish government.
| PULSE POINTS |
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: A former Scottish National Party (SNP) council leader was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Wednesday after being convicted of multiple sex offenses, including sexual assault and inappropriate communication with young men and boys. This comes just ahead of crunch elections to the Scottish Parliament—roughly equivalent to a U.S. state legislature—on May 7. 📍 WHEN & WHERE: The sentencing took place on Wednesday at Falkirk Sheriff Court in Scotland. 📺 DETAIL: Jordan Linden, a former leader of North Lanarkshire Council, has been convicted of 10 sexual offenses. Linden’s offenses span a 10-year period between 2011 and 2021. Over the course of several years, multiple investigations were conducted into Linden’s behavior by the SNP, the Scottish Youth Parliament (chaired by Linden between 2015 and 2016), and Police Scotland, but these did not result in criminal charges until recently. In 2022, Linden resigned as leader of North Lanarkshire Council following allegations of sexual harassment, resulting in the collapse of the local SNP administration. 🎯 IMPACT: Linden’s sentencing damages the SNP before elections to local councils and Scotland’s devolved legislature on Thursday. The party is left-separatist, wanting to take Scotland out of the United Kingdom, but not nationalist, as it wants to surrender sovereignty to the European Union (EU) in order to rejoin it, and increase mass migration. While only a minority of Scots support breaking up the United Kingdom, the SNP is still the country’s leading political party, and it is projected to remain the largest in the Scottish Parliament after tomorrow’s elections. However, it is also projected to fall short of an outright majority in the Scottish Parliament, with Nigel Farage’s Reform Party expected to make an electoral breakthrough for the first time. This is just one of several notable sexual assault cases concerning Scotland. |
The Conservatives and Labour are on course for historic losses in the 2026 Holyrood election, according to our first MRP projection of the campaign, while Reform UK are set for a breakthrough in Scotland, with the Greens and Lib Dems also set to make gains pic.twitter.com/OCO0DweOkZ
— YouGov (@YouGov) April 10, 2026
Image via North Lanarkshire Council.
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