Oral Answers to Questions

Alyn Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 17th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Douglas Chapman (Dunfermline and West Fife) (SNP)]

3. What recent steps he has taken with the Scottish Government to promote Scotland overseas.

[Alyn Smith (Stirling) (SNP)]

7. What recent steps he has taken with the Scottish Government to promote Scotland overseas.

[Steven Bonnar (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) (SNP)]

10. What recent steps he has taken with the Scottish Government to promote Scotland overseas.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Jack]

Yes, of course I do, and I also welcome the Scottish Government’s deciding not to ban advertising, for instance, for whisky producers. It is simply the case that the UK Government work with the Scottish Government in promoting Scotland overseas, but what we do not like is when the Scottish Government—I know this is what the hon. Gentleman was getting at—stray into reserved areas such as constitutional and foreign policy on those visits.

[Alyn Smith]

Promoting Scotland and the UK abroad is not about flags and anthems; it is about finding common cause with allies and working on common problems. The EU’s North Seas Energy Cooperation forum is a world-leading gathering of 10 coastal states around the North sea, including Norway, which is not in the EU, and Luxembourg, which does not have a coastline, and they are all agreed on trying to beat climate change by working on renewable energy. I had a parliamentary question answered just yesterday, saying that the UK does not want to join the North Seas Energy Cooperation. If the UK does not want to join, could the UK stop holding Scotland back, and we will get on with it?

[Mr Jack]

The UK wants to promote Scotland’s food and drink industry and to promote renewables and the sale of renewables—for instance, to Vietnam—and we do that through trade deals. I say to the SNP: “Get behind the UK Government. Get behind the trade deals we’re doing. You’ve never found one you liked so far. Start supporting them!”