Labour candidate Heather Doran has launched a blistering attack on STV, accusing the broadcaster of ignoring local communities and pressing ahead with what she called “damaging cuts” to its regional news services. Speaking ahead of the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry by-election on 18 June, Doran said: “It is deeply disappointing that STV has failed to listen to local communities and forged ahead with these damaging cuts.” She added that the broadcaster “must set out clear plans to ensure it can continue to cover the big issues in our area and the rest of the region.”
Doran is standing for Labour in a constituency that was created by the 2023 Westminster boundary review and covers coastal Angus and eastern suburbs of Dundee. The by-election was triggered after the incumbent SNP MP, Stephen Gethins, was elected to the Scottish Parliament in Dundee City East and resigned his Westminster seat on 14 May, complying with the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025, which bars dual mandates. Labour came second in the seat at the 2024 general election, losing by just 859 votes. Doran previously contested the Angus South constituency in the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, finishing fourth.
What STV is cutting – and why it matters
The cuts at the heart of the row are part of a plan by STV to centralise news broadcasts in Glasgow, replacing the dedicated regional programme that currently serves the north of Scotland from Aberdeen. The broadcaster says the restructuring will save £3 million a year and is necessary because of changing viewer habits and a challenging media landscape. STV chief executive Rufus Radcliffe argued the changes would allow the company to “continue serving viewers with the high quality, trusted national and regional news they expect”. The plans initially put around 60 jobs at risk, roughly 30 of them in news.
Under the approved model, newsgathering teams will remain in Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh, but the 6pm weekday news programme will see up to 70% of its content shared across all regions, with only the remaining 30% tailored to local areas. The broadcasting regulator Ofcom formally approved the changes, stating that they would “ensure that a distinct regional character will be retained in each area” because no more than 70% of content would be shared.
Critics argue that the move represents a severe blow to local journalism in northern Scotland. First Minister John Swinney said he was “extremely disappointed” and “deeply concerned” by Ofcom’s decision, warning it would “significantly weaken regional news provision in the north and north east of Scotland” and “erode local representation”. Swinney, who had previously raised objections when the job cuts were first announced in September 2025, described regional news coverage as “essential for democratic accountability” and said weakening these obligations set a “damaging precedent” that could accelerate the decline of public interest journalism in Scotland.
Conservative MSP Douglas Lumsden called the decision “disgraceful” and predicted “devastating consequences for its Aberdeen newsroom”. The National Union of Journalists also condemned the changes, labelling them “bad for viewers” and “bad for journalism” in northern Scotland, and noted that only 4% of viewers in the affected regions supported Ofcom’s decision.
The proposed cuts hit a particularly sensitive nerve because they affect the legacy of Grampian Television, which provided local news bulletins for the north of Scotland from 1961 until it was acquired by STV in 1997. For many viewers, the loss of a dedicated Aberdeen-based programme is seen as the end of an era of distinct regional broadcasting.
Voters in the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry by-election – which also features candidates from the SNP (Lara Bird), Conservatives (Jack Cruickshanks), Liberal Democrats (Tanvir Ahmad) and Reform UK (Bill Reid) – will need to produce Voter ID to cast their ballot. The constituency is 97% white, with 56% in social grades A, B and C1. Average household income is £30,186, below the national averages for both Great Britain and Scotland, while home ownership stands at 70%, higher than both averages. In the 2016 EU referendum, 58% of voters in the area backed Remain.
