Frankly, the best way to protect our place in European programmes is to be in the European Union. The last time I looked, the UK Labour Party was supporting the Conservative Party on the UK remaining outside the European Union. That is a statement of fact, and one will hear a lot of that in the months and years to come.

Of course we should seek mitigation wherever we can, but we have to aspire to more than mitigation. Yes, let us do everything that we can do on the horizon programme, and we need to do everything that we can on student mobility across the European Union, but please let us not wave a white flag of surrender and keep ourselves outside the European Union and suffer this damage.

Why does the Scottish Labour Party not return to its pro-European roots and support Scotland rejoining the European Union, which is where it should be?

Alasdair Allan is absolutely right: Brexit is, of course, an act of unmitigated self-harm by the UK Government, and it represents a generational disaster for Scotland. Mitigating its impact is a priority for the Scottish Government, and until we are able to rejoin the European Union as an independent nation, we will have to deal with issues such as the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, which is reckless, damages legislation and needlessly puts at risk vital protections and standards. It should be withdrawn by the UK Government.

Scotland will continue to align as closely as we can with the safeguards and standards that we benefited from as part of the European Union.

On horizon Europe, the Scottish ministers have been consistently clear that association is a matter of significant importance to the research sector in Scotland.

The Scottish ministers have been clear in their communications that association to horizon Europe is a matter of utmost importance to Scotland and is the best option for the Scottish research and innovation sector.

Given the cross-cutting nature of horizon Europe, many Scottish ministers have an interest in, and engage with their UK and devolved counterparts on, the issue. I attended the interministerial group on UK-EU relations meeting on 20 March, in which I raised the importance of UK association to horizon Europe ahead of observing the trade and co-operation agreement partnership council meeting between the UK and the European Union on 24 March.

The Scottish Government will continue to work together with the UK Government to ensure that Scotland’s interests and needs are supported as negotiations are taken forward on EU programmes.

The simple answer to that question is yes. I have worked with UK ministerial counterparts in two recent meetings, the most recent of which I attended with the UK Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, and Maroš Šefcovic, in relation to a number of normalisations that we hope to progress in Northern Ireland. I give Graham Simpson and colleagues a commitment that we want a return to the horizon programme.

I will make a minor point in relation to that. We would not be in any of this difficulty if the UK had not left the European Union, and if we, as we voted for in Scotland, had been able to remain in the European Union, we would not be in the difficulty that we are now trying to dig ourselves out of.

To be frank, the biggest blockage and impediment to progress relates to the state of negotiations around Northern Ireland and the UK Government’s threat to break international law and international treaties as part of the appalling relations and gunboat diplomacy that it has pursued in past months.

We have now moved beyond that—thank goodness. As I previously mentioned in an answer to a question from a Conservative member, having sat in on a meeting between James Cleverly and Maroš Šefcovic, I know that there is reason to believe that progress can be made now that we have got beyond that stage.

When we meet UK Government colleagues, we will do everything that we can to impress on them the importance of making progress but, to be honest, the biggest impediment that there has been to date has been the appalling relations between the UK Government and the European Union. I hope that we are now beyond that.

The Scottish Government believes that the best future for Scotland is as an independent country that is a member state of the European Union. We set out in the third paper of the independence prospectus the multiple benefits that rejoining the EU as an independent country would bring to workers, including greater mobility to work in any EU country, a fairer labour market and better regulation and protection of workers’ rights. We will continue to build the case for a socially just, independent Scotland within the EU and to give the people of Scotland the information that they need to make an informed choice about whether Scotland should become an independent country.

I whole-heartedly agree with Clare Haughey. The United Kingdom Government—with the support of the UK Labour Party—has imposed an unnecessarily hard Brexit, which is having a damaging impact on businesses and workers in Scotland and is making the cost of living crisis so much harder to bear.

The Office for Budget Responsibility expects that the UK’s gross domestic product will be 4 per cent lower in the long run, which is the equivalent of around £100 billion in lost output and which will damage employment prospects for workers. That further demonstrates why securing independence and getting back into the EU—a market that, by population, is seven times the size of the UK market—is essential for the future wellbeing of people in Scotland.

The Scottish connections framework seeks to expand links and networks with Scottish people and people with an association with Scotland who live elsewhere in the world.

Scotland faces particular challenges, given that all our forecast population growth is expected to come from migration. That is one of the reasons that the Scottish Government is so concerned about the United Kingdom Government’s approach to immigration.

Migration is therefore an issue that is crucial for Scotland’s future economic and social wellbeing. Activity under the framework will allow the Scottish Government to project Scotland’s attractiveness as a place in which to work, to live, to study and to do business. That will include promoting the talent attraction and migration service, which we aim to launch later in 2023.

The Scottish Government continues to engage overseas and at home with ministers and delegations from across Europe. Our international network of offices works to develop, maintain and strengthen relationships, attract trade and investment opportunities and create economic, social and cultural benefits for people in Scotland.

Of course, rejoining the European Union would be by far the easiest and best way to maintain and enhance those relationships.

As our national day, St Andrew’s day is a special day for people in Scotland and around the world to come together to celebrate our country, our culture and our shared history.

Final discussions are yet to be made on plans to celebrate and mark St Andrew’s day 2023, but we expect communities at home and those around the globe with an affinity to Scotland to take the opportunity to celebrate St Andrew’s day and the Scottish values of kindness, compassion and solidarity.