Chamber and committees

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I know that there will be rising anxiety on the Tory benches, but it is just to say that I could not vote and that I would have voted yes.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I am aware that, under rule 13.1 of the standing orders, it is permissible for members to make personal statements, conditional on your agreement and, of course, subject to scheduling by the Parliamentary Bureau. So, in the interests of checking that parliamentary procedures are followed correctly, I ask whether you would grant Douglas Ross a personal statement, if he asked you for one, to allow him to correct the record and to explain why he pursued a misleading line of questioning in last week’s session of First Minister’s questions.

We know that the Conservatives will oppose virtually any measure addressing climate change but, last Thursday, while questioning the First Minister, Douglas Ross attempted to discredit the new low-emission zone in Glasgow. He stated:

“Homeless Project Scotland was refused an exemption to use a refrigerated van within the restricted area.”—[Official Report, 1 June 2023; c 11.]

He went on to heavily imply that the LEZ was condemning the charity to being unable to do the work that it wants to do. Of course, he failed to clarify that Glasgow City Council had, in fact, given an exemption to Homeless Project Scotland so that it could continue its work. [Interruption.]

—allied to the evident and appalling toxicity within the Tory group, which was exemplified yesterday by the disgraceful language of Murdo Fraser, who attacked through personal abuse a member of the Parliament, is, in my view—[Interruption.]

Presiding Officer, I seek your advice about how we can ensure that Opposition leaders such as Douglas Ross do not knowingly mislead this chamber. Can you inform Parliament whether Douglas Ross has made any attempt to correct the record or seek your permission to make a statement so that he can explain why he thought that it was acceptable to pursue a misleading line of questioning during First Minister’s questions?

Additionally, after the end of First Minister’s questions, Douglas Ross proceeded to share his misleading assertion further on social media and, to date, has not removed that post.

That disingenuous conduct—[Interruption.]

That behaviour is, in my view, by design tarnishing the reputation of this Parliament. It has even been reported today that Stephen Kerr wants to leave this Parliament to go back to the gentler environment of Westminster. [Interruption.]

I was delighted to see that tourism was to be discussed in the chamber, and then I saw the motion. It is a misleading attempt to score political points at the expense of one of Scotland’s most important sectors. It starts off with a false assertion and continues to cherry pick problems and pretend that there can be simplistic solutions to complex issues.

Worse still, what we have heard ignores energy bills, interest rates, the impact of inflation and—

Was that an intervention?

No—I have only four minutes.

Two years ago, the Tories promised to improve ferry service to the Isles of Scilly. They have not even put that out to tender.

Trying to ignore the real impact of energy costs, interest rates, inflation and Brexit on the tourism industry is the real hardline anti-business agenda that has been spoken about before.

In my constituency, the Stirling and Clackmannanshire city region deal will see the Scottish Government invest £15 million to enhance the cultural, heritage and tourism offering, aiming to attract even more people from across Scotland, the UK and the world to our spectacular region.

The Scottish Government’s tourism strategy was laid out in March 2020—the month that the pandemic hit hard. This morning, I heard Steve Barclay, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, say that the huge waiting lists in the national health service in England were due to the pandemic, which affected every Administration around the world. We hear no mention of that from the Scottish Conservatives. This is not a serious motion about the tourism industry in Scotland.

The figures show that the sector is recovering well—it is returning to the positive growth figures that we were seeing before the pandemic. The Scottish quarterly gross domestic product index for sustainable tourism, which plummeted during the pandemic, is now back to pre-pandemic levels and moving in an upwards trajectory. Indeed, employment in the sector increased by 10.6 per cent over the latest year.

It is worth mentioning employment. We used to get a monthly bulletin from Murdo Fraser celebrating every time the UK outperformed Scotland’s rate of employment, but he has not said a word for the past few months as Scotland has outperformed the UK in relation to the rates of employment, economic activity and unemployment.

There is no room for complacency, but there is no place for a doom-laden pronouncement either. It is the usual from the Conservatives: they are talking Scotland down.

The A9 was mentioned. The first priority of the Tory party, as of the Labour Party—this was certainly the case when I joined this Parliament—was to vote for £500 million to be spent on the trams in Edinburgh. That was their priority, not the A9 or the A96, which this Government has progressed. What we inherited from previous Labour and Tory Governments was in an abysmal state.

I have said that I am not taking any more interventions.

The fact is that some parts of that route present some severe engineering challenges. Everyone knows that, especially those who use it.

What has not been mentioned? The investment in the Aberdeen western peripheral route; the Borders railway line, which is the longest rail extension in the UK for 100 years; and the Queensferry crossing. As Willie Rennie mentioned, RET had a massive impact in parts of the country, too.

The two biggest on-going barriers to growth for the tourism economy in Scotland are entirely of the Tories’ making, and they should be facing up to that. The first is the fall-out from the failings of its disastrous economic policies—we have heard about Liz Truss. The second is the effect of Scotland being dragged out of the European Union against our wishes, ending freedom of movement, making it harder for visitors to come here and causing major employment headaches for many sectors, particularly, it must be stressed, the hospitality sector. The Tories are the ones who are undermining the tourism industry in Scotland. Their motion should have at least acknowledged that.