The Scottish Parliament will sit today after being recalled for only the sixth time in its history to show respect to the Duke of Edinburgh.
Holyrood’s presiding officer, Ken Macintosh, announced on Friday that MSPs would be able to return to parliament to pay tribute to Philip with a motion of condolence from 11am on Monday.
All of the parties at Holyrood have also temporarily suspended their campaigning for the Holyrood election.
READ MORE: 'The BBC’s caricature of Prince Philip was an insult to him and us'
On Friday, Mr Macintosh said: “I have this afternoon decided that the Parliament should be recalled to show our respect to the Duke of Edinburgh following today’s sad announcement.
“His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, lived a life dedicated to duty and public service and his support for this institution was clear.
“This is why I have taken the decision to recall in order that we may take the time to pause, remember and pay tribute to his work.”
The meeting will start with a minute’s silence before considering a Motion of Condolence with a statement from party leaders.
The Parliament has previously been recalled on January 4 to discuss the Covid-19 pandemic and for the death of first minister Donald Dewar, the death of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, for a ministerial statement on the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, and on December 30 last year for a Brexit debate.
Scotland’s political parties had earlier suspended campaigning for the May election after Philip’s death.A notice announcing the death was briefly posted on the gates of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queen’s official residence in Edinburgh, on Friday afternoon.
Flags were lowered to half mast there, as well as at the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Government and local authority buildings.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel