Chamber and committees

Notwithstanding those political disagreements, I was pleased to congratulate Rishi Sunak personally earlier this week on his appointment as Prime Minister. I am sure that we all do that, and I take the opportunity to do so again here today. I hope that everyone across the chamber, without exception, will join me in saying that we should all stand united and in solidarity against racism. That is what is called for and it is what I will always do.

First, what Douglas Ross refers to as “global inflation” just happens to be higher in the UK than around most of the rest of the globe right now because of the economic and financial incompetence of the Conservative Government.

Let us return to the matter at hand. The criteria that he refers to, which are actually the Maastricht criteria, was in place when Sweden joined the European Union 27 years ago. Sweden—[Interruption.]—kind of proving the point that I am making—

Douglas Ross does not want to listen to any of that. I know that he often flip-flops on whether he agrees with Tory leaders, but clearly he is now disagreeing with David Cameron as well.

Here is another one:

“I have no intention of forcing countries to join the euro if they are not willing or not able to do so.”

That was said by the former President of the European Commission itself. If quotes are not enough, how about hard evidence? Many countries in the European Union still use their own currency. [Interruption.] I am being asked to name them: Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden, which has been a member state since 1995. There we are, Presiding Officer—we have direct quotes and hard evidence.

Finally, if Douglas Ross wants to have this debate, I would welcome it. Here is my challenge to Douglas Ross: let’s have a referendum and have these debates with the Scottish people.

Douglas Ross should perhaps reflect on the fact that people across this chamber were not laughing with him. However, this is extremely serious.

Let us just take it point by point. Douglas Ross says that we want to abandon the pound. He is in the party that, over recent times, has wrecked the pound. He has the nerve to stand up in this chamber and talk about security for pensions—that from the party that, over recent weeks, brought pension funds within hours of collapse. He calls for security for mortgage payers—that from the party that, because of its incompetence, has sent mortgage rates soaring through the roof. That is the reality of Scotland within the United Kingdom.

He also has the nerve to talk about deficits. Remember that deficits right now are created as a result of Westminster decisions. We are about to find out, later in November, the price that Scotland will have to pay in the form of another wave of Tory austerity, probably in the form of tax rises, and to see how the Tories are going to deal with the deficit that they have created. Independence is an alternative to the economic mess that the Tories have created.

Finally, on the euro, I note that, when Douglas Ross does not like the quotes and the countries that form the evidence here, he just calls for others. The fact of the matter is—[Interruption.]

This is where Douglas Ross also has a nerve, because we are getting close to the point—again because of Tory incompetence—where the euro may well soon be worth more than the pound. That is another example of Tory fiscal and economic mismanagement and incompetence, to which independence gives us the only real alternative.

I agree, and I would be shocked if everybody in the chamber did not agree with those points. People are really suffering from the impacts of inflation and, earlier this week, the ONS statistics laid bare the detail beneath the headline inflation figure. It is really important that action is taken. The Scottish Government is taking the action that we are able to take within the powers and resources that we have at our disposal. I very much hope that we see more action from the UK Government, and I made that point directly to the new Prime Minister when I spoke to him earlier this week.

I will recap the points that Emma Roddick has made, for which I hope that there is support across the chamber. There should be no further austerity. Our public services are still dealing with the legacy of the most recent period of Tory austerity—they are dealing with the impact of inflation right now—so there should be no further austerity. It is morally right that there should be inflation increases for benefits, so that should happen. There should also be inflationary increases for the budget of the Scottish Parliament, so that we can pass those on to public services.

I certainly hope that that is what we will get from the United Kingdom Government, but I fear that what we will get is another wave of austerity and further tax rises, although I hope to be proved wrong on that.

I thank Beatrice Wishart for raising an issue that I know was of profound concern to islanders last week. The Government was very involved in ensuring that all efforts were made to reconnect the services as quickly as possible. Thanks to the dedication of everyone who worked on that, telecommunications and power supplies were not interrupted for several days—in fact, all supplies and services were reinstated around 4 o’clock on the same day. The Scottish Government’s resilience room monitored the situation and liaised with partner agencies throughout.

The points about wider resilience are legitimate and important, and I give a commitment that we will review all of that in light of the incident and will consider what other steps may be required. I undertake to keep the member updated about that work.

The child disability payment and the adult disability payment, as well as the carers allowance supplement, are part of the package of social security benefits that we are providing. We are also funding new forms of advice and advocacy to help disabled people and those with long-term health conditions to access the financial support that they are entitled to.

We have also introduced child winter heating assistance, which is an annual payment to families with severely disabled children, to help them to heat their homes. Like the carers allowance supplement, that financial support is unavailable anywhere else in the United Kingdom.

Another new benefit that is available only in Scotland will begin in February: the winter heating payment will help many low-income households with their energy bills. We are also doubling the fuel insecurity fund to £20 million.

Yes, I will give that commitment. We have repeatedly highlighted to the UK Government the urgent needs of Scottish businesses, including the issue of the rising energy costs faced by many across the country. I impressed that point on the new Prime Minister when I spoke to him earlier this week, when I highlighted the pressure and pain that are being felt right now by people and businesses as a result of inflation and other economic pressures.

I hope that we will see further help from the UK Government in the budget statement that the chancellor will outline in the middle of November. On 19 October, the Deputy First Minister wrote to the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, making many of those points, and we will continue to make those points as strongly as possible.

I agree that those reports are deeply concerning, and I want to be very clear that we take them extremely seriously. Any foreign country that operates in Scotland must abide by Scottish law. The Scottish Government fully supports individuals’ rights to freedom of expression, which is an extremely important principle.

Obviously, those matters require to be fully and properly investigated. It would not be appropriate for me to go into too much detail, but I know, as a result of a conversation that I had yesterday with the chief constable, that the police are aware of those reports. Of course, the police are operationally independent, and it is up to them to determine what investigations would be appropriate. However, they are aware of those reports, and I repeat that those reports require to be treated extremely seriously.