Junior Ministers
The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-04011, in the name of Alex Salmond, on the appointment of junior Scottish ministers. Members should note that the question on the motion will be put immediately after the debate, and not at decision time.
17:00
I am pleased to seek parliamentary approval for the appointment of Margaret Burgess, Joe FitzPatrick, Paul Wheelhouse and Humza Yousaf as ministers. In doing so, I obviously want to record my gratitude for the huge contribution to this Government on the parts of Bruce Crawford, Brian Adam and Stewart Stevenson, who are stepping down.
It is fair to say that Bruce Crawford is held in enormous respect across all the parties in this Parliament. I think that it is fair to say because among Bruce Crawford’s duties—he is still in office, as we speak—is responsibility for writing speeches, such as this one, for the First Minister. I think, therefore, that we can be confident on that point.
To pilot a challenging legislative programme is a difficult job in any Parliament at any time, but to do that during four years of minority government was totally extraordinary. In that period—this is perhaps an unwise admission—I was not entirely convinced, given the arithmetic of the Parliament, that the Government would manage to survive the full term. I hope that I never betrayed any lack of confidence in the longevity of the Government when I was leading it, although the narrow occasions—the odd narrow squeak, the odd budget vote, the odd close vote, the odd tied vote—often came with the possibility that the term of office might end with a dunt. The fact that it did not, and that that minority Government got through its legislative programme and proceeded through four years in office, is due more to Bruce Crawford than to any other individual.
Working with Bruce Crawford, Brian Adam’s talents as a chief whip were undoubtedly essential to maintaining that Government in office and to ensuring that we were able to progress the legislative programme. Brian Adam has always been a trailblazer for the Scottish National Party and the cause of independence. He was elected to public office in a 1988 by-election in the City of Aberdeen District Council, in which he was, at that time, the only SNP member. Brian has often observed to me that, although his talents as chief whip had to be displayed a number of times in the SNP group, they had their sternest test when he had to whip himself in Aberdeen City Council. Brian Adam’s talents as chief whip over the period have been exemplary, and we owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for his work.
Stewart Stevenson, as Minister for Environment and Climate Change, has been an intelligent, eloquent and passionate champion of Scotland’s world-leading climate change legislation, which was passed unanimously by Parliament. Stewart Stevenson has championed that cause not just in Scotland, but in countries around the world, conscious that our efforts with regard to climate change can make a difference only if we encourage others to share that ambition. That legacy will be remembered as we move forward, and I know that he will continue to champion those issues inside Parliament and outside Parliament. To have that legislation as one of the legacies of his ministerial contribution is an accolade that is almost beyond compare in the lifetime of this Parliament. Well done, Stewart Stevenson.
All three members will continue to make contributions in Parliament and will continue to serve their constituencies with distinction. We wish them all well for the future in their parliamentary endeavours.
The four new ministers whom I wish to appoint are well aware that they have hard acts to follow. Prior to Margaret Burgess’s election in 2011, she had a career working for the East Ayrshire Citizens Advice Bureau and, if approved, she will take up the new position of the minister for housing and welfare, where that experience will prove to be invaluable. The appointment reflects the importance of housing in aiding economic recovery, and the challenge that is facing people who are in poverty—indeed, the challenge that is facing Scotland—from the welfare changes. Those challenges have been highlighted this week by Citizens Advice Scotland and Save the Children.
Joe FitzPatrick was a member of Dundee City Council for eight years before becoming the MSP for Dundee West. At last year’s election, he more than trebled his majority, which illustrates the high regard in which he is held by the people of that city. Joe’s commitment to the city has currently taken him to Japan, where he is seeking potential twin-city status to further Dundee’s links with that country, and is meeting the architect of the new Victoria and Albert museum building, Kengo Kuma, and his team to discuss that exciting new development at Dundee’s waterfront. I can confidently say that Joe is the first person in the history of this Parliament to be in Japan when he was appointed as a Government minister.
Paul Wheelhouse was a professional economist before joining Parliament. If his appointment is approved, he will be minister for environment and climate change and will take forward Scotland’s work on those hugely internationally important policy areas.
Humza Yousaf is one of the youngest members of the Scottish Parliament, having graduated only five years ago. Since then, he has served as parliamentary assistant to Bashir Ahmad, the first Muslim member of this Parliament. Humza Yousaf becomes the first Muslim minister in this Parliament, which I think demonstrates that this is a Parliament for all of Scotland. That is a hugely important commitment and demonstration.
I have also made changes to the responsibilities of two of my cabinet secretaries. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s longest-serving health secretary, is moving to become Deputy First Minister (Government Strategy and the Constitution) and Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities, and will spearhead the work on capital investment, which is crucial to our economic recovery. She will also have lead responsibility for preparations on the referendum and has already been active in that role, as she met Scotland Office minister David Mundell this morning.
Alex Neil has done a fine job as Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, overseeing the establishment of our £60 billion infrastructure investment plan and saving the Scottish public sector £130 million in a single year through the work of the Scottish Futures Trust. He will take on Nicola Sturgeon’s responsibilities, as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing. In my estimation, Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Neil performed admirably in their previous portfolios, and Scotland is better off for their contribution.
Taken together, these changes to the Scottish Government strengthen our focus on economic recovery and on seeking the powers that will enable Scotland to drive that recovery. They give responsibilities to four able new ministers and further strengthen a team that is dedicated to working for Scotland with competence, energy and ambition towards a wealthier and fairer country.
I move,
That the Parliament agrees that Joe FitzPatrick, Humza Yousaf, Margaret Burgess and Paul Wheelhouse be appointed as junior Scottish Ministers.
17:08
Before tongues start to wag or speculation mounts, I assure members that there has been no reshuffle or palace coup on the Labour benches—Johann Lamont sends her apologies for not being able to attend the debate.
It gives me great pleasure to extend a warm and progressive Labour welcome full of forward-thinking positivity to the newly appointed team of Scottish Government ministers. We look forward to working with each and every one of them and to engaging with the Government and sharing Labour’s inspirational and aspirational vision for the future of Scotland.
Before I turn to the appointments, I pay tribute to the three ministers who are demitting office—Stewart Stevenson, Brian Adam and Bruce Crawford. They have achieved the remarkable feat—certainly from the Opposition perspective—of representing the Scottish Government and the Scottish National Party while retaining their likeability. In their dealings with Parliament and the Scottish people, I believe that each of them has deservedly earned a reputation for fairness, sensitivity and good humour. I thank them all for the service that they have given to the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament over several years.
Brian Adam is one of the original members of the Parliament and has now served in many different capacities: as a list MSP, a constituency MSP, a committee convener and a minister. I know that he will continue to make a substantial, and usually Doric, contribution from the back benches.
Stewart Stevenson—sometime pilot, bank manager, psychiatric nurse, chauffeur to the First Minister, inventor of the computer, now unfortunately has another former post to add to the most impressive résumé in Holyrood. I believe that we are all delighted that Stewart was able to survive the weather, but unfortunately this season he has not seen out the change in the political weather.
Bruce Crawford has won much admiration, particularly for his handling of the business manager’s role through four years of minority Administration. Mr Crawford gained not just the respect of Opposition politicians, but their friendship too—a rarity in our cynical world. He will be genuinely missed by politicians from the front bench of our party and from his own. [Applause.]
Sad though it is to see Bruce Crawford step down from office, he will be the first to admit that the one downside of being business manager is that it stopped him from speaking in Parliament. The flip-side of that argument, of course, is that it gives the Opposition parties a good reason to welcome Joe FitzPatrick to the new post. Without wishing to be too cruel to Mr FitzPatrick, if the public face of the business manager’s job is to bob up and down in Parliament reading a pre-prepared and predictable script without being unduly troubled by independent thought, he is not only the perfect candidate, but has also trained assiduously for the past five years.
Equally, I am not sure whether Mr FitzPatrick’s appointment will give hope or disappointment to his colleagues of a sycophantic tendency on the SNP back benches. Clearly for Bob Doris, Jamie Hepburn, Annabelle Ewing or the new boy trying on Joe’s crown as the most exuberant and loyal interventionist—the ever-enthusiastic Kevin Stewart—there may be short-term disappointment that this time round their phones did not ring, although they can see that fawning obedience is a long-term avenue to successful promotion.
As for the other appointments, I am pleased that Margaret Burgess will be able to bring to bear her experience from the citizens advice bureaux and elsewhere on the tricky and troubled area of welfare reform. It will be a difficult task and we all wish her well in that area of work.
I also congratulate Humza Yousaf, who is the acceptable face of the SNP—the poster boy of Scottish nationalism. He has been given an equally difficult task—that of ensuring that Fiona Hyslop remains in the Cabinet. I have no doubt whatsoever that Humza is there entirely on his merits, but I also want to congratulate him on his appointment as the Scottish Government’s first Muslim minister. [Applause.]
Of course, I am similarly delighted for Paul Wheelhouse on his elevation. He is a back bencher who has earned a reputation for intelligent and informed contributions in the chamber. I was pleased to hear that when summoned to Bute House, Mr Wheelhouse’s first reaction was to assume that he was in trouble with the boss—an attitude that I imagine will go down well with the First Minister.
I will conclude my look at the headline appointments on a slightly more serious point. I was a little baffled by the appointment of Alex Neil—I am assuming that his move to becoming health secretary is a promotion. What exactly—I asked myself—were his achievements in his infrastructure post? Surely his achievement was not to send jobs to China. Perhaps it was to announce dozens of long-term projects that may or may not happen over 20 years and then to withdraw funding from projects that should be happening now? The only conclusion that I could come to is that the First Minister took a leaf out of David Cameron’s book: if Jeremy Hunt can be promoted to health for his handling of the Murdoch affair, Mr Neil deserves similar treatment.
Last, but certainly not least, there is Alex Neil’s predecessor as health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon—the minister whom Mr Salmond described, with no apparent trace of irony, as a modern-day Nye Bevan. She has been so successful that she is to be given six jobs. As well as being Mr Salmond’s loyal deputy, she now has responsibility for infrastructure, for capital spending, for welfare reform and housing, for cities, and of course—her number 1 priority—for delivering the referendum. There are plenty of jobs for Ms Sturgeon when what this Government should be delivering is plenty of work for the people of Scotland.
The accusation has been laid at the feet of the SNP that it has identified the wrong political priorities—that it has promoted independence when it should be promoting the pressing needs of the people of Scotland: the economy. However, I look forward with positivity and with optimism and the challenge surely is to prove us wrong. It is a great honour and a privilege to be appointed as a Scottish Government minister, and on behalf of my Labour colleagues, I wish all of those so named today well in their work on behalf of the people of Scotland.
17:14
I join Ken Macintosh in paying tribute to Bruce Crawford. The task that he performed in the previous parliamentary session was remarkable. It is a hallmark of his character and the way in which he forged relationships across the Parliament that he was an ambassador for this Parliament and that he would have been a model in his responsibilities in any Parliament. That is a very considerable thing to say. [Applause.]
I associate those comments with Brian Adam as well. I know that he has continued in office despite difficulty, and I wish him and Bruce Crawford every success as they take up their positions on the back benches.
I genuinely regret the passing of Stewart Stevenson from the Government. I do so not for the most obvious reason, but simply because members, I imagine, must now reconcile themselves to having to endure the forthcoming substantial autobiography modestly entitled, “How I Saved the Planet”. It will be a required Christmas present.
I spoke about Nicola Sturgeon yesterday. I am very much looking forward to my time debating across the chamber with Mr Neil, who is to bring his strangulated hyperbole to the subject of health. The days when we see his plate piled high with the best nursery food that the canteen can provide will have to be put behind him. I certainly look forward to playing Bond to his Blofeld. I do not know where that leaves Jackie Baillie. It says much about the Parliament that the cross-party poster team for healthy living should be Alex Neil, Jackie Baillie, Alison McInnes and me.
I turn to the new ministers. I know that Humza Yousaf will be hugely indebted to me. When Derek Mackay was appointed, I said that it would not be long before Humza Yousaf followed suit. He was dazzling us then. He is an absolute poster boy for the very best of private education—a good Hutcheson’s grammar school boy. I was a governor at the school when Humza was a pupil and he had a very considerable reputation. For what, it would be indelicate of me to say, but I certainly wish him well. I, too, pay tribute to the fact that he is the first Muslim minister in the Parliament. I think that he will be a considerable addition to the Government.
I like to think that a long-term programme to infiltrate the SNP was put in place in the days when Sir Graham Macmillan, who led the Conservative Party, met Helen Liddell, who was the general secretary of Labour. It has succeeded today, in that the former young Conservative leader in Aberdeen, Paul Wheelhouse, has been made a minister in the Administration. Paul’s mother, Ruth, who was an employed Conservative agent returning Conservative MPs in Edinburgh, kindly donated her son to the project and those of us on this side of the chamber are delighted to see that long-term plan bearing fruit. It gives great hope to us all. I welcome Paul Wheelhouse to the Government. I know that he will do well.
Margaret Burgess—modestly, I think—was not expecting her appointment and was quietly traipsing around the bar the night before. However, I am sure that she will be an excellent addition to the team.
The most wily of the appointments is surely Joe FitzPatrick. He has been picked because I think that the First Minister recognised the challenge that I said he was creating for himself with a chorus of the great disappointed on his back benches. Marco Biagi will learn from his indulgence in a reckless, red-blooded summer of hot, flushed flirtation with the NATO nine. It is to be hoped that his time will come again.
I know the conversation that the First Minister will have had with Joe FitzPatrick. “Joe, I’m turning to you, I want you to show those rebels on the back benches. Lead them from the fields of rebellion back to the righteous plains of prostrate genuflection in support of the Government.” It may not prove so easy. Sometimes, a taste for rebellion gained is difficult to lose.
The politics of all of this I leave to yesterday and to tomorrow. For today, my colleagues pay tribute to the service to the Government and to the country of those ministers departing. On a personal basis and within the bounds of political reason and propriety we support the motion in the First Minister’s name and wish all his new colleagues every possible success.
17:19
I, too, pay tribute to Bruce Crawford. He serves in the same region as me and he has always been a courteous and diligent colleague. He skilfully steered his party through the minefields of minority government. I pay a heartfelt tribute to him for his work and his considerable commitment, for which we should all be grateful.
In a former life, Brian Adam greatly assisted me when I worked in science. He has always been dedicated and has put aside party politics to deal with the greater cause. I pay tribute to him, too.
I assume that Stewart Stevenson can now devote his full attention to his inspiring and sometimes flamboyant approval—at least, I think that it is approval—of my questioning of the First Minister every week. Stewart Stevenson is never quiet during that and I am never quite sure whether he approves of what I say.
At First Minister’s question time, we discussed the change of balance in the Government. We have registered our concern that the most senior minister has been diverted to lead the referendum campaign.
It is not just me who is concerned. Earlier today, the First Minister hinted that he wanted ministers to serve five-year terms, as Nye Bevan did. In half a sentence, he wiped out the promotion prospects for a generation of SNP back benchers—they are looking worried now. I therefore particularly welcome those who could be the last new SNP ministers we ever see: Humza Yousaf, Margaret Burgess, Paul Wheelhouse and Joe FitzPatrick.
I pay tribute to the new ministers and to those who are retiring. We all know that politics is not an easy life. We are not universally loved by our voters. Working in government is a challenging task when pushing through difficult things. The commitment that that takes and the impact on our families and friends are not small.
I pay tribute to everybody who commits their life to politics and to the ministers, who will have late nights and extra work. I genuinely thank them for that effort. We wish them well and hope that they will make a positive impact for the wider interests of the people of Scotland.
17:22
I am pleased to speak on the motion on the appointment of junior Scottish ministers. Each new minister brings a great deal of experience and skill to the Scottish Government.
I have worked closely with Joe FitzPatrick, particularly in the past six years, as he is the SNP group secretary and I am the group convener. His ability to pay attention to detail and the boundless energy that he donates to any task will stand him in good stead for the challenges that are ahead. More important, the Parliament will benefit greatly from his way of working.
I have known Margaret Burgess for many, many years and perhaps for too long—not in any way for me, but for her. When she was elected, my first thought was that, given her knowledge of social matters and how she expresses points, she leaves people in no doubt that she not only knows her subject but feels for it. In her time in the Parliament, she has already proved that she will be a fitting minister for the welfare and housing portfolio. Well done, Margaret. [Applause.]
Paul Wheelhouse is another energetic addition to the Government. He has the ability to articulate complex issues in easily understood words, which is an attribute that fits well with the environment and climate change portfolio.
There is agreement across the chamber that Humza Yousaf has carried himself extremely well since being elected. I have enjoyed his thoughtful speeches in the chamber, which are delivered with great care and attention. Some matters that members raise can cause their opponents discomfort, but he never does that with malice. He is extremely gifted and will enhance Scotland’s reputation across the world as the minister for external affairs and international development. [Applause.]
My notes say:
“say something about the ‘big beasts’.”
I engage with a lot of women’s organisations and I am not prepared to call Nicola Sturgeon a big beast, but if she stands up straight I will call her nearly big. No one can doubt her ability and her work as the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing. I predict that she will carry out her new role in Government with the same level of commitment and determination.
On the other hand, I have no qualms whatever about calling Alex Neil a big beast. The baton has been handed from an extremely effective and courageous health secretary to someone who will easily carry it forward. Knowing Alex as well as I do, I am more than confident that the baton and the health service are safe in that highly motivated and caring big beast’s hands. It is a big job, but it is a big man who has got the job.
I will say a few words about those who are demitting office, beginning with Stewart Stevenson, who is sitting on my right. Even under the most difficult circumstances, he has behaved in a polite and courageous manner to all—not only to those in our party group, but to members across the chamber. Well done, Stewart.
I have sought counsel and personal assistance from Brian Adam many times. As a whip, he worked effectively without breaking bones or hearts—some attribute for a chief whip.
Bruce Crawford is a man of the utmost integrity. He is someone who makes the deals and sticks to them. He knows all that there is to know about the Parliament—procedure, process and even the building—but Bruce is never a know-all.
To all three, I offer my personal thanks as the convener of the Parliamentary Bureau. I could not put on record the assistance that they have all given to me. I really do wish them all the best in the years to come. [Applause.]
17:27
I congratulate my fellow Glasgow MSP Humza Yousaf on his appointment to the Government. He has always struck me as able and impressive. However, it is a little worrying that he has risen quite so quickly. I suggest that he slow down his career—otherwise he will be resigning before he gets his chance to be our first foreign secretary.
Margaret Burgess brings great experience to the issues of poverty and welfare. It is an area in which the Parliament has severely limited power to protect Scotland from the United Kingdom Government’s agenda—one more reason to make the right choice in 2014.
It seems to me that Nicola Sturgeon’s only problem is one of acronym. The fictional Nicola Murray led a department known as DOSAC. Now, in her new role as Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities, Nicola Sturgeon is “seasick”. I am not quite sure that that was thought through.
It has been rightly pointed out that the Deputy First Minister has much to do at the same time as working towards a yes vote in 2014. I believe that economic recovery is a vital part of making the case for independence but only if we define recovery in new terms. Back to business as usual would only mean repeating the last generation’s mistakes, and I hope that she has the vision to see beyond that agenda.
Much of Nicola Sturgeon’s previous remit now falls to Alex Neil. He is going to have to raise his game if he is to live up to her record of prolific tweeting. He has been entirely silent in that medium since before the summer recess. I am sure that some members hope that he finds the same restraint in the chamber, but that seems unlikely. While equal marriage for same-sex couples is by no means the only important aspect of his new job, it is certainly one of the most anticipated and I look forward to seeing him give the same clear leadership that we all know the issue needs.
Paul Wheelhouse has another urgent job to do. The Government missed the first annual target under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 this year. He must not only get back on track but exceed the next annual target if he is going to make up for the lost time. If the Government is remotely serious about turning a set of targets from paper commitments into real-world delivery, he will need to be the minister who champions the radical action that has been ducked up to now. The first test will be whether the forthcoming report on policies and proposals under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 is bold and fully funded in the budget. I urge him to ensure that both those documents are presented to Parliament together to allow the scrutiny that he agreed was necessary when he signed up to the Finance Committee’s report on last year’s budget.
I also welcome Joe Fitzpatrick to his role but I hope that he will forgive me if I direct my final comments to Bruce Crawford. When discussions have gone well, and on the few occasions when they have gone badly, I have never found Bruce to be anything other than straightforward, decent and likeable. We have heard that that view is shared across the parties. I will miss working with him in his former role, but I hope that we will see a bit more of him in the bar from time to time from now on. I wish him very well for the future.
17:30
The responses that we heard from Ken Macintosh and Jackson Carlaw could be described as the see-what-you-could-have-won speeches, in the sense that they were both candidates for their respective parties’ leadership elections and were both not voted into office. I have to say—I say this genuinely—that I was watching the back benches of the Conservative Party and the Labour Party and could see many people wondering whether they had done the right thing back in the elections.
I cannot say that about Willie Rennie, because there was no alternative to him, if I remember correctly. He said that parties are sometimes not universally popular with their constituents. Coming from a Liberal Democrat, that showed a hitherto unsuspected talent for understatement.
The co-operation that we see developing has gone far. I am grateful to the local papers in Eastwood for supplying the final evidence of the extent of close co-operation between Ken Macintosh and Jackson Carlaw. Here they are in a photograph—with somebody who looks suspiciously like a former Secretary of State for Scotland standing in between them—as the Eastwood manifestation of the better together campaign, a fantastic campaign that is moving around Scotland stirring up antipathy wherever it goes.
I recognise every single one of the faces in the photograph—a few Conservative activists and a few Labour activists bonded together. However, I wonder whether the co-operation that we saw today and the co-operation that we saw behind the stall in Eastwood—hand in glove as they are—is universal across the back benches. I note that Neil Findlay, participating in the Edinburgh people’s festival debate entitled “Independent Scotland”, said of the better together campaign:
“We had that nice man Alistair Darling … and home baking … at his flat in Pilton. It is Pilton that Alistair stays in isn’t it? Along with Comrade McLetchie, wee Dougie Alexander and somebody I’ve never heard of from the LibDems”.
It may be that what we heard from Ken Macintosh and Jackson Carlaw is not universally shared across Labour and Conservative benches.
There were references—including one from Ken Macintosh—to the longevity of health secretaries. The point that I made earlier today was that Nye Bevan was in office for five years and six months and Nicola Sturgeon managed five years and five months. I say for Ken Macintosh’s benefit that the comparison that I was making was that Nye Bevan resigned from the Government after five years and six months because of the introduction of prescription charges in the national health service, whereas one of Nicola Sturgeon’s many achievements as health secretary was the abolition of prescription charges in the national health service.
I ask the First Minister exactly what Nye Bevan’s views were on nationalism.
Nye Bevan was one of the great figures of the past century, who believed in a national health service free at the point of need. Would that Ken Macintosh and his colleagues still believed in that concept, which was championed by Nicola Sturgeon and which will be championed by Alex Neil as the new Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.
I am fascinated by the concern that Labour has shown for infrastructure and investment as a Cabinet post, because I looked back in the records and found that, in eight years of the Labour Government in alliance with the Liberals in this Parliament, there was no Cabinet post for infrastructure and investment. Nobody was in charge of infrastructure and investment, which is because, of course, every Labour minister was thirled to what Alex Neil has described as the PFI schemes—schemes so disastrous and expensive that even the Conservatives and the Liberals are turning away from that disastrous form of public investment.
That is why it is so important for Scotland’s economic recovery to have Nicola Sturgeon at the helm of infrastructure and investment, overseeing the capital investment that we need to take our economy forward and the powers that we need so that this country can move forward as an independent nation.
The question is, that motion S4M-04011, in the name of Alex Salmond, on the appointment of junior Scottish ministers, be agreed to.
Motion agreed to,
That the Parliament agrees that Joe FitzPatrick, Humza Yousaf, Margaret Burgess and Paul Wheelhouse be appointed as junior Scottish Ministers.