Election of Speaker

Angus Robertson Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2015 Commons Chamber

[Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP)]

On behalf of my right hon. and hon. Friends on the Benches of the Scottish National party, I extend congratulations to the Father of the House and to you, Mr Speaker, on your reappointment by the whole House. Before you assumed the role of Speaker, you committed yourself to fairness across the House—to Back Benchers and to all political parties. In the previous Parliament, that was particularly important to the SNP, which then had only six Members, or 1% of the membership of the House. With colleagues from the Welsh and Northern Irish parties, we were regularly called with fairness in questions, debates and statements and during the other business of the House.

As you can see, Mr Speaker, the SNP has returned with a great many more Members than in the previous Parliament. We represent 56 of Scotland’s 59 constituencies. We are now the third party in this House and we look forward to making Scotland’s voice heard. We look forward to opposing austerity and we will resolutely oppose the renewal of Trident weapons of mass destruction. We will have our voice heard and we will play our full and fair part in the proceedings of the House of Commons.

We still, however, support the fair treatment of smaller parties such as the Liberal Democrats and the Green party and the other really small parties that only have one Member, such as the Scottish Conservative party, the Scottish Labour party and the Scottish Liberal Democrats. We wish you well, Mr Speaker. We wish your Deputies well. We wish the members of the Speaker’s Panel well. We wish all members of the House, regardless of their party affiliation, well in the years ahead.