Chamber and committees

I thank the Deputy Presiding Officer for the heads-up in relation to the two preceding questions.

The real test moving forward is how quickly that debt level is coming down and how determined the Government is to reduce it, because that will send the clearest of signals to fraudulent claimants and those who have knowingly received overpayments. Will the cabinet secretary therefore commit to a benefit fraud and overpayment dashboard, so that we can see whether overall debt levels are accumulating or falling over time?

[Made a request to intervene.]

If the First Minister will not accept my criticism, what is his comment on Nicola Sturgeon’s criticism of his Government?

Today’s programme for government sets out what this Government hopes to achieve over the next five years, but, sadly, because Scots have heard it all before, it looks less like a five-year plan and more like a five-year excuse to dodge scrutiny.

The proposed food price caps, which have been rejected by producers and retailers, would most likely be illegal and would lead to higher prices and, no doubt, a confected constitutional power row.

Local government reform and empowerment are proposed by a Government that has spent years cutting council budgets, centralising services and ring fencing its own budgets.

There will be more GP walk-in centres, despite the dismal attendance numbers at those that have launched already and the mounting criticism from front-line clinicians.

Instead, this programme for government could have been about growing our economy, lowering people’s bills and fixing public services, which John Swinney has singularly failed to do. He failed to do so as Scotland’s finance secretary, as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, as Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery and as Deputy First Minister, and now he is failing to do it as First Minister—for however long he hangs around.

The message from stakeholders across Scotland was clear. For example, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce says that the SNP must reduce the cost of doing business, accelerate infrastructure delivery—something that is particularly poor in this SNP Government—and address skills shortages.

I welcome one of the announcements in the First Minister’s programme for government: that there will be additional support for the last pub or shop in any town or village. How has it come to a position that far too many of our towns and villages are down to their last pub or shop because of the SNP’s repeated failure to pass on the money for rates relief that the UK Government readily provided?

This uninspiring five-year programme for government stems from a manifesto that lacked ambition and that one commentator, Nicola Sturgeon, said had a lack of “vision or big-picture thinking”. From her vantage point in lower-tax London, Nicola Sturgeon described John Swinney’s campaign as being

“detached from the big issues bearing down on people’s lives.”

For the first time—and for the Official Report—I agree whole-heartedly with the former First Minister when she points out that this SNP Government is fundamentally failing to address the real concerns of ordinary Scots, failing to meaningfully support Scotland’s oil and gas sector, failing to ensure that dangerous prisoners serve their sentences in full, and failing to reduce the size of the bloated civil service—something that Ivan McKee will continue to fail to do unless he is willing to face down Scotland’s public sector unions.

Today’s statement proves that this SNP Government is out of step with Scottish people. It contains very little on how this SNP Government, led by John Swinney, will tackle the £5 billion deficit that it has created and appears to be ill prepared to tackle.

It is Scottish taxpayers who, by the end of this decade, will pay a heavy price for John Swinney’s failure. At a time of mounting concerns about the cost of living, businesses and households want to see their bills come down, but the biggest bill that many of them face is their tax bill. As we saw over the course of the summer, and as was confirmed by the Scottish Fiscal Commission, the SNP’s fiscal financial mismanagement has not just made Scotland the highest-taxed part of the UK. Those higher taxes are failing to deliver the revenues that are needed to meet the SNP’s present spending obligations, particularly the soaring bill for social security and, within that, the SNP’s soft-touch approach to the adult disability payment.

I turn to public sector reform. I see that Mr McKee is not sitting in his place. I do not doubt that he will come forward with a plan—the SNP is very good at developing plans. However, it had a plan to get civil servants back into the office and it has failed to do so. It had a plan to reduce the size and head count of the civil service, and it has failed to do so. So, when it introduces yet another plan—for example, to reduce the number of health boards—is that not simply shifting deck chairs on the Titanic?

I seem to recall that Mr Flynn was a member of the House of Commons when the SNP’s numbers there were absolutely slashed. This is a smaller Parliament, and Mr Flynn likes to try to make as much mischief as he can, but he cannot evade the facts: the SNP’s approach is high on tax and low on delivery. It puts benefits over work and criminals over victims. It is gimmick after gimmick from the man whose job Mr Flynn wants.

Last week, we saw the publication of a draft bill on independence. The SNP Government is still obsessed with constitutional politics at the expense of delivering better outcomes for the people of Scotland. It spends more and taxes more but delivers less. It sets ambitious targets but fails miserably to meet them.

In the words of its former leader, this SNP Government is “detached” from the concerns of the people that it says it serves.

It is a sad truth that Scotland simply cannot afford this five-year plan and it cannot afford five more years of John Swinney and the SNP.

16:51

Given the fragility of bus services across Dumfriesshire, will the minister commit the cabinet secretary, who is overseas, to a meeting with me, so that I can reinforce the case for a station at Beattock, which is now increasingly vital?

If kicking the can down the road was a competitive sport, this Government would win gold every single time. Many Scottish businesses now continue to face some of the highest rates liabilities in the UK, and many have seen eye-watering increases as a result of the most recent revaluation. Businesses were told that the Barclay review would fix the system. Hospitality businesses are awaiting the Gill review.

Today, the cabinet secretary announced a further review and an independent and urgent panel to assess the revaluation. Does she not understand that businesses that are going to the wall at a rate of knots in Scotland today do not want more reviews? They want urgent action to reduce their bills and to have a greater understanding of how the system operates.

I am seeing you tomorrow.

Perhaps, Presiding Officer, you could hear the point of order in full to determine whether it is a point of order.