Chamber and committees

—and for those suffering under the hated two-child cap?

In particular, does the First Minister agree that the UK Government’s decision to increase national insurance contributions could have a severe financial impact on Scotland’s public sector, potentially costing the Government, the national health service, schools and the police and fire services hundreds of millions of pounds? Does he agree that the UK Government must, at the very least, fully mitigate any negative impact on the Scottish Government and on public services in Scotland and that any mitigation must be provided in addition to, not as a substitute for, increases to Scotland’s block grant?

Does the First Minister agree that the UK budget fails to deliver the transformative change that the people of Scotland were promised and that, in fact, it continues the same broken austerity ideology of the Tories—[Interruption.]

We have to face the fact that Brexit is what broke Britain. We had a number of years of austerity—Labour and Tory—before that, but Brexit broke Britain. As if that was not enough, Liz Truss took her turn and tanked the economy.

The motion that we are debating is hypocrisy at an unprecedented level. The Scottish Government, despite facing obstacles at every turn, has done a remarkable job of delivering economic progress and social benefits that consistently outshine those of other parts of the UK.

Of course, in Scotland, people pay the lowest tax in the UK.

Will the member give way?

That seems to come as a revelation to some Conservatives—which demonstrates their ignorance. [Interruption.]

However, it is simply the case that a majority of people in Scotland pay less tax than those in the rest of the UK. Some people pay more, and those who do pay more tend to be higher earners. [Interruption.]

I know that it is hard to listen to, but people in Scotland pay less tax than people in the rest of the UK. Those who pay more are the highest earners, and that is fair, because in Scotland we choose to support our communities and not bail out banks while ordinary families struggle.

The motion suggests that the Scottish Government has failed to deliver better outcomes. Let us look at some outcomes. We have scrapped tuition fees. Every day, we hear stories about people down south who are struggling with massive debts that they have no expectation of being able to pay off before they end their working lives. We have free bus travel for more than 2 million people in Scotland. We have the best-performing core accident and emergency departments in the UK and the highest number of general practitioners per capita in the UK. We have abolished rates for more than 100,000 small businesses, increased international exports by a staggering 69 per cent since 2007 and invested £11 billion in Scotland’s rail infrastructure.

When Westminster imposed cruel policies such as the bedroom tax, it was the Scottish Government that stepped up, by investing £74.8 million to protect people from its worst impacts, and it invested millions more to offset the child benefit cap. Where is Labour on those issues? It is nowhere to be seen when it matters.

Lorna Slater mentioned the article in The Daily Telegraph entitled “Why thousands are fleeing to Scotland—and why you should too”. Even The Daily Telegraph acknowledges that life in Scotland under the SNP is better than it was before and better than it is elsewhere. [Interruption.] I know that, again, that is hard for the Conservatives to accept.

We are seeing more net migration to Scotland, which obviously means that people who read that article believe that life is better in Scotland. One of those new Scots is Ellie Jones, a young woman from Cheshire who came to study at the University of Stirling in my constituency. She graduated, stayed and now works at the university. She shared her experience, saying:

“There are so many benefits that people don’t think about, like free dental care until you are 25. Free prescriptions and eye tests are also brilliant. You don’t realise it until you have them—they are such a big bonus.”

That is the reality for people living in Scotland, yet here we are being asked to trust the economic wisdom of a party whose leader—I do not think he is here now; I think that he has left the debate—once said, “In Liz we trust”. Now, he is back-pedalling, saying:

“We all get things wrong.”

Those are the legacies of Russell Findlay: “In Liz we trust” and “We all get things wrong”. Mr Findlay backed Liz Truss, betting on the one Prime Minister who managed to crash and burn faster than any Prime Minister in recent history, which showed his breathtakingly poor judgment. Now, the Tories are back, urging Scotland to adopt the same tax-cutting frenzy that Truss chased after—the very same agenda that left the UK in economic turmoil.

They really do not like hearing about Liz Truss on that side of the chamber, but we will take no lessons from the Tories. Their track record is loud and clear, as is ours, though in a very different way. The economic change that we should be considering is one that will truly empower people, boost our jobs and provide growth.

There might be a lesson for the Tory party. What it thought was a symbiotic relationship with the Labour Party in this chamber—when it was about always attacking the SNP—was a parasitic relationship. The Tory Party is having its lunch eaten by the Labour Party, which will replace it as the biggest unionist party at the next election. That is the reward that it gets for eight years of sticking with the Labour Party.

Scotland deserves better. We deserve the powers of a normal country with independence. We can unlock our future potential and truly thrive, and say goodbye to Brexit and Liz Truss.

Will the First Minister confirm that, without ministerial sign-off by the sponsoring minister, who is Mr Swinney, as well as costs not being paid, which has been covered by Collette Stevenson, it is also the case that even parliamentary questions would have gone unanswered, because only ministers are able to answer parliamentary questions? Does the First Minister agree that refusing to answer parliamentary questions would have elicited the same howls of protest from the same Opposition members who are now criticising him for doing his job?

The Borders railway was, of course, the longest new railway to be built in the UK for more than 100 years.

On cross-border rail travel, will the First Minister acknowledge the recent announcement this week that the Labour Government is looking to extend HS2 into London but has no plans to do what was originally intended and bring it into Scotland, even though the project has cost billions of pounds more than it was meant to cost, and may cost more than £100 billion? The wastage is enormous, and yet there is no commitment to Scotland. Will the First Minister raise that with the UK Government?

Will Miles Briggs give way?

Did the UK Government undertake any analysis of the number of deaths that were caused during the energy crisis by the UK Government’s failure to do what other Governments did and get on top of the crisis in support of people who were struggling to pay their bills?