Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Murray Excerpts

Wednesday 24th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

I join the Minister in passing on our condolences to the Secretary of State and his family on their bereavement. I also wish everyone a happy Burns day for tomorrow. I thank the wonderful Ayrshire musicians in the Public Gallery, who treated us to some entertainment last night.

Since the Government have been in power, working people have paid on average 10p on the pound more in tax. The supposed party of low tax has created the highest tax burden on working people in 70 years, making this the biggest tax-raising Parliament since records began. In Scotland, the SNP has looked at that tax burden and said, “Hold my beer,” as everyone earning more than £28,000 pays even more tax than they would in England. What impact does the Minister think that historically high tax burden has on the Scottish economy?

[John Lamont]

The Government remain focused on reducing the tax burden when it is prudent to do so, but as the hon. Gentleman identifies, we have an additional challenge in Scotland in the high tax agenda put forward by the SNP Scottish Government. I share his concerns about the impact that that is having on the ability of the Scottish economy to perform to its full potential.

[Ian Murray]

The Minister seems to think that having your pocket picked for £10 and getting £2 back is something to be grateful for. The fact is that working people all across the country, including in Scotland, are paying for the Tories’ crashing of the economy. We know that the Barnett formula results in an additional £19 billion of public spending in Scotland’s economy, but last week The National reported that the SNP was being encouraged by its sister party in Wales to join the campaign to ditch the funding formula.

Sixteen years of SNP Government have left Scotland’s public finances with a £1 billion black hole. We are in the middle of the worst cost of living crisis in generations, yet historically high taxes are already being imposed on working people to pay for it. Losing the Barnett formula would devastate Scotland’s public finances and economy like nothing we have seen before. Will the Minister join me in demanding that the SNP rule out the policy to bin the Barnett formula?

[John Lamont]

The biggest enemy of the Barnett formula and of devolution in Scotland is the SNP. It wants to rip up the devolution settlement and stop the Barnett formula, which results in millions of pounds of extra investment going into Scotland each year. The Conservative Government remain absolutely committed to devolution, the Barnett formula and more investment into Scotland.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Murray Excerpts

Wednesday 29th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

It is great to see you back in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker. Welcome back, particularly to Scottish questions.

There has been a seismic victory—an historic victory—this week: the Scotland football team beat Spain at Hampden last night, so we all send our congratulations to them. May I echo the Secretary of State’s congratulations to Humza Yousaf, the new First Minister of Scotland? The Secretary of State rightly challenged Mr Yousaf to engage reverse gear on independence, but I think he may already have crashed that car. The new First Minister of course inherits a divided party and the SNP’s dreadful record on public services, but he does not inherit Nicola Sturgeon’s mandate—at the Holyrood election, the ballot paper said

“Nicola Sturgeon for First Minister”,

not “Humza Yousaf”. Does the Secretary of State agree with me and with Humza Yousaf himself, who rightly called for a UK general election after there was twice a change in Prime Minister last year? Does the Secretary of State agree that a new First Minister with no mandate means that there should now be not only a general election, but a Scottish election?

[Mr Jack]

There is a precedent for political parties voting in new leaders who then assume office: Henry McLeish replaced Donald Dewar, Jack McConnell replaced Henry McLeish, Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair, and even Nicola Sturgeon replaced her at-the-time great friend and mentor—her words, not mine—Alex Salmond. It would be hypocritical of me to say otherwise, because last year, of course, I defended the change of Prime Ministers, and it is hypocritical that Humza Yousaf suggested then that we should have an election and there is now deafening silence.

[Ian Murray]

That answer shows that both the Conservative party and the SNP are democracy deniers. In January—[Interruption.] In January, Madam Deputy Speaker—[Interruption.] They don’t like it up ’em! In January, the UK Government announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding with BioNTech and Moderna to conduct trials of vaccines that can attack cancer cells. Such innovative treatments could be a lifeline for those with terminal cancers, such as David Williamson from Glasgow, who contacted me and others to plead to be accepted on to those trials. However, David lives in Scotland, and as it stands the trials are due to take place in England only. He has written to both the UK and Scottish Health Secretaries but has failed to receive a response. David does not want to die knowing that there could be a treatment that could help him. Does the Secretary of State agree that potentially life-saving treatments should be available throughout the UK? Will he work to resolve this matter urgently for David and thousands of others?

[Mr Jack]

This is a very serious issue and my sympathies are with David and his family. I know that he has written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. I am a great believer in our NHS being reciprocal across the United Kingdom and will organisation a meeting for the hon. Gentleman with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care at the earliest opportunity.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Murray Excerpts

Wednesday 16th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State, or should I say Lord Jack-elect, was blindingly loyal to the former former Prime Minister, the former former Chancellor, the former Prime Minister and the former Chancellor over the summer. They crashed the British economy on the back of handing out tax cuts to the richest. The economic crisis was created around the Cabinet table in Downing Street by the people the Secretary of State sits beside, and it will be paid for by working Scots. What price does the Secretary of State think Scottish public services and Scottish working people should pay for his Government crashing the economy?

[Mr Jack]

First, as I have said in previous answers, we are facing a global economic downturn as a result of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. On the hon. Gentleman’s final point, the Prime Minister has made it very clear that he wants to protect the most vulnerable in society.

The hon. Gentleman refers to my previous roles in Cabinet. I do acknowledge that mistakes were made. The Chancellor took immediate steps to restore market stability when he came into his new role.

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will agree about one other thing. Along with leading economists, we can all agree that the biggest risk to the economy of Scotland is the reckless—[Interruption]—I was just waiting for the temperature to rise—the reckless plans of the Scottish Government.

[Ian Murray]

It is the reckless plans of both Governments that pose a danger to Scotland, but the point is—and this is what the Secretary of State denies—that it is about not just the last 12 weeks but the decisions of the last 12 years.

A few weeks ago, a constituent came to my surgery in tears. My constituent’s 1.79% five-year fixed-rate mortgage rate was expiring, and the remortgage rate was nearly 6%. That familiar story, which means going from a stable income and affordable bills to the crushing anxiety of being unable to pay for the roof over the heads of one’s family, was totally avoidable, but this Government and Secretary of State chose to ignore the experts, ignore their own officials and ignore independent bodies such as the Office for Budget Responsibility, and the result has been a Tory premium on everyone’s mortgage. Does the Secretary of State think that he and his new Prime Minister should stop refusing to say sorry and give the public an apology, which is the least that they deserve?

[Mr Jack]

I do understand how concerned people are about their mortgages. Obviously, a number of factors are influencing interest rates, but we are doing all we can to limit those factors and to support the people who need support most at this difficult time.

Tributes to Her Late Majesty The Queen

Ian Murray Excerpts

Friday 9th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

It is a great pleasure to follow the “buttocks” of the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell)—it will be the first time he has heard that, as well.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to pass on my condolences to the royal family and also to pay tribute to Her late Majesty the Queen on behalf of my own family, constituents in Edinburgh South and people all over her beloved Scotland. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth was a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother to her own family, but she was also a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother to the nation. We will all remember where we were when we learned of her death yesterday. We will always remember that it was in Scotland that she spent her last weeks and days and, as we have heard already, she loved being in Scotland and particularly on the Balmoral estate—the tranquillity, the great outdoors and the complete absence of any speed limits.

The Queen loved Scotland and Scotland loved the Queen. The ties between Scotland and our longest-reigning monarch are plentiful, from her very first public speech as a young princess in Aberdeen at the opening of the British Sailors Society, to the yarn of her wedding dress being woven in Scotland, Royal Yacht Britannia being built on the Clyde and retired to the Forth, as well as the opening of the first Forth bridge and the second one 53 years later. She always looked forward to the royal week in Edinburgh each year. Scotland was, as she described it, her “special place”. She said at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 that,

“if I may make a personal point”

Scotland occupies

“such a special place in my own and my family’s affections.”

I remember my own childhood and the traditions that revolved around Her late Majesty. Every Christmas, she was as much a part of our family as the rituals of the tree and the turkey as every generation of our family crowded around the television for her 3 o’clock Christmas address. She transcended every generation all the way to my two-year-old daughter, who now knows who that was drinking tea with Paddington. I have yet to explain to Zola that Paddington’s friend has passed away.

Over the past 24 hours, I have tried and struggled to find the language to describe her, but the one word that a constituent said to me late last night was “iconic”. She was the very definition of iconic. She was on every pound I ever spent—admittedly fewer than many others because I am a Scot—and on every letter that I ever sent. Her name is on dozens of plaques and buildings all over my constituency and tens of thousands all over the country. She embodied what it means to be British and epitomised public duty, decency and dignity. She picked us up when we were down and when our children and grandchildren look back at this time, it will be Elizabeth II above all else who they will remember as the thread through every part of our post-war history. She was truly our greatest monarch.

I would love to tell a humorous anecdote—I hope that somebody else will tell it—about the visit to Balmoral that she had with Dick Griffin, one of her former protection officers, but there is no time to do that. Somebody else might do so shortly. I never met Her Majesty but we all think we did because she was such an integral part of and influence on our lives. Everyone thinks they did meet her, because anyone who did never stops telling the story. That is the impact she had on each of their lives.

I can only imagine the pain and grief the royal family feel today and that pain and grief is compounded by the duty that King Charles III now has to lead this nation. I, the people of Edinburgh South and the people of Scotland simply say thank you for everything, Ma’am, rest in peace, and God save the King.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Murray Excerpts

Wednesday 29th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State, Ian Murray.

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I am sure the Minister would wish to join me in congratulating the Bridge café in Gilmerton in my constituency on winning café of the year yesterday and the Rotary Club of Braids on its 50th anniversary. We have had some wonderful achievements locally, and good luck to Andy—no relation— Murray at Wimbledon this afternoon.

In the latest poll in Scotland, the Prime Minister has a net approval rating of minus 71. Included in that negative figure of course are the Scottish Conservative leader and every Conservative MSP and Scottish MP —except for the Secretary of State. So does the Minister think that the threat to the Union posed by the Prime Minister clinging to his job is a price worth paying?

[Iain Stewart]

First, I would be delighted to congratulate the café in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency and when I am next in Edinburgh I will endeavour to pay a visit.

I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman. This Government and this Prime Minister are focusing on the big issues that face Scotland and the whole United Kingdom: keeping the west safe from Russian aggression; dealing with the global economic challenges from the pandemic and the war; and addressing the long-term challenges such as energy security and climate change. That is what we are focusing on.

[Ian Murray]

The very fact that the Minister has to read that list tells its own story. The simple truth is that the Prime Minister puts the Union at risk every single day that he clings on. The country knows that, his party’s Back Benchers know it and even the First Minister knows it—which is why she wants him to stay. Yesterday was nothing more than an attempt by the First Minister to deflect from her horrendous record in government and to hinder the prospect of a future Labour Government replacing the Prime Minister’s Government. That is what she fears the most. The only thing that matters to Nicola Sturgeon is, of course, independence—not soaring NHS waiting times, hungry children, drug deaths, increasing poverty, a widening educational attainment gap or Scots worried about their bills. Why will the Minister not recognise that the Prime Minister is nothing but a gift to the SNP and put the future of the UK ahead of his blind loyalty to the Prime Minister?

[Iain Stewart]

I do agree with one part of the hon. Gentleman’s question, and that is about the real focus of the Scottish Government: it is, as he says, not about addressing the real challenges in Scotland; it is about appeasing the hard-liners in the separatist party. We are not going to be deflected from getting on with the job we were elected to do.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Murray Excerpts

Wednesday 15th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

May I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Ogmore (Chris Elmore), who has left the shadow Scotland team and been significantly demoted in my view to the ministry of fun? I thank him for everything he did in that role. I welcome my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist). I do not know what she did in her previous life to deserve it, but she will, as the House has already seen this morning, be wonderful in her new role on the shadow Scotland team, and we welcome her very much.

Every day, there are more and more revelations about the Prime Minister and this Government breaking their own lockdown rules. It truly is one rule for them and one for the rest of us. As the country cancelled Christmas last year, the Prime Minister had a party or three. The Government have lost all moral authority to lead this country, with scandal, sleaze and cronyism writ large. The Scottish Conservative leader was asked three times in the media at the weekend whether he could think of any positive attribute for the PM, and even he could not answer. Can the Secretary of State think of any positive attribute for the Prime Minister? Can he tell me any reason why this morally bankrupt Prime Minister is not a bigger threat to the Union than any nationalist?

[Mr Jack]

Absolutely, without any difficulty, I can. The Prime Minister is a man of optimism, he is a man of vision and he is a man who delivered the trade deal running up to Christmas last year when no one said he could. He showed courage. He showed foresight in investing in the vaccine development, and he has gone on to deliver the fastest vaccine roll-out in Europe.

[Ian Murray]

I congratulate the Secretary of State on his reading ability, and I notice that he did not use the word “honesty”—there’s a surprise. I know the Secretary of State has cancelled his own Christmas party this year, so I look forward to seeing the photographs from it in the press shortly.

A major strength of the Union is of course the pooling and sharing of resources. The First Minister has announced a raft of new covid guidance this week that has devastated the hospitality trade. At the same time, she has offered pitiful financial support and criticised the UK Government for not providing funds. Such sectors want our two Governments to work together: they need our help. A hospitality business in my constituency sent me an email last night, saying:

“my customers have been driven away so we won’t survive these latest restrictions without government support. We always need a good festive season to see us through the winter. Where is the financial support?”

Why can the UK and Scottish Governments not work together to provide the financial support that these hospitality businesses deserve and need?

[Mr Jack]

The hon. Gentleman makes a very serious point. Hospitality is under a lot of pressure across the United Kingdom, not least in Scotland. The Treasury announced yesterday afternoon, just ahead of the First Minister’s statement, that we were giving the Scottish Government certainty over their finances, and that is the first point I would make. What the Scottish Government have failed to do is set out what measures they believe are right for Scotland and how much these would cost, and that is an important thing to understand. They have also failed to explain how they cannot afford to act on their own, given that they have a record settlement this year of over £41 billion of block grant—the highest block grant settlement in real terms since devolution began.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Murray Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

A proper plan for jobs would have Scottish renewables at its heart. There are four simple steps that the Minister could take today to unleash that proper plan’s potential: first, persuade the Treasury to create a pot dedicated to tidal energy in the fourth contracts for difference auction; secondly, instruct Ofgem to reform transmission charges to stop disadvantaging Scotland; thirdly, fund energy interconnectors from the island generators to the mainland; and fourthly, back the Acorn carbon capture and storage project. Those Government decisions would not only transform the UK energy sector, but create a Scottish jobs legacy from COP26. Will the Minister demand that his Cabinet colleagues act now to create a proper jobs plan for Scotland?

[Iain Stewart]

The hon. Gentleman raises an important issue. Scotland has enormous potential in the renewables sector. I can reassure him that the Acorn project is not dead; it did not get through to the first two, but it is the reserve project and we will be working closely to ensure that it is in a future round. Through my Department, we are funding a number of renewable energy schemes such as CoRE—the Community Renewable Energy project—in East Ayrshire. Tidal energy, which the hon. Gentleman referred to, can form part of the Orkney islands growth deal. More generally, I would be happy to facilitate a meeting with my colleagues in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy so that the hon. Gentleman can discuss the wider issues.

[Ian Murray]

I would certainly accept a meeting with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to go over the issues, but I would have thought that the Minister and the Scotland Office would also want to champion them. If one outcome from the conference of the parties is quite clear, it is that we need action, not just words.

The Chancellor’s Budget last week did not have a plan for jobs either; in fact, he barely mentioned it. Despite paying more, Scottish taxpayers are getting much less after a decade of devastating Tory and SNP austerity. It is no plan for jobs to increase taxes on businesses and hard-working people at a time when households and businesses are struggling with rapidly rising costs. Are the Minister—as a Conservative Minister—and his Department comfortable that under his Government, hard-working Scots now face the highest tax burden since the 1950s?

[Iain Stewart]

On income tax, the Scottish Government are responsible and it is indeed true that they have higher taxes than the rest of the UK. I will leave the hon. Gentleman to take that up with the Scottish Government.

On his wider point about unemployment and employment, if the hon. Gentleman casts his mind back to the Budget last week, the forecast for unemployment after the pandemic was originally about 12%, but it is going to be less than half that. The changes that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor is making to universal credit tapers, for example, will leave more money in the hands of hard-working people.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Murray Excerpts

Wednesday 8th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jack]

I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend. The strength of support was over £14 billion during the covid crisis, and the furlough support helped 900,000 jobs in Scotland at the height of the pandemic, which is nearly a third of the Scottish workforce.

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

May I join the Secretary of State in congratulating our Olympians and Paralympians on their wonderful medals haul in Tokyo? May I also congratulate the Scottish football team on a marvellous result last night? However, he knows, as all Scots do, that it is the hope that kills you, so let us not celebrate too much.

Our shared social security system is vital to underpinning our Union, but by the next Scotland questions the Government will have made the largest ever overnight cut to social security for those in work by removing the £20 from universal credit. Citizens Advice Scotland says that more than half those people are worried about being able to buy food. At the same time, the Government have broken another promise and want to increase national insurance with the highest tax rise in 40 years. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that about 150,000 working families on low incomes in Scotland will pay an average of £100 extra in tax while losing £1,000. What advice does the Secretary of State give those families on low incomes on where they should cut £1,100 from their family budgets?

[Mr Jack]

The uplift in universal credit was always intended to be temporary—it was to help claimants through the economic shock and financial disruption of the pandemic—and we now have the kickstart programme and a multibillion-pound plan for jobs. I understand it is difficult to break a manifesto promise, and the Prime Minister was clear that he was doing that in raising national insurance, but he also had a manifesto promise to address social care, which, since Tony Blair said he would address it in 1997, has not been done.

[Ian Murray]

There is no money going into social care, but we will leave that for a different time. Last week, Labour’s shadow team visited Orkney and its European Marine Energy Centre. It has facilities such as the most powerful tidal turbine in the world, which results in its having excess energy that it cannot get back to the mainland. At the same time, the Scottish and UK Governments are backing the Cambo oilfield. With COP26 coming to Scotland, should the Secretary of State not lead by example, refuse Cambo and reform the outdated transmission charge regime while providing funding for a new large-capacity interconnector between Orkney and Shetland and the mainland? That would bring huge benefits and innovation to the islands and power large parts of Scotland from renewable resources.

His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Ian Murray Excerpts

Monday 12th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to say a few words on behalf of my constituents in tribute and condolence this afternoon. As has been said already in the House and will no doubt be repeated throughout these tributes and for months and years to come, on Friday we lost an extraordinary public servant who dedicated his long life to our country, transformed the lives of millions of young people across the world and promoted the issue of global conservation well before it was widely understood by the vast majority of the population. For more than seven decades, he was a constant at the Queen’s side. We know from all that has been said and written how much the Queen cherished the support, counsel and love of her husband.

Prince Philip, of course, had a long association with Scotland that dates back to his schooldays at Gordonstoun in the mid-1930s. But it is on my city—the city of his title, Edinburgh—that I would like to say a few words in tribute this afternoon. He was the patron of around 30 charities and educational institutions based in Edinburgh alone, not to mention the many thousands across the whole country that we have heard about today, including Heriot-Watt University, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh Graduates’ Association and the Botanical Society of Scotland; he was patron and a freeman of Edinburgh itself; Edinburgh chamber of commerce and enterprise, the Edinburgh Indian Association, the Edinburgh press club and, of course, the Edinburgh Royal Navy club—how could he not be? His beloved royal yacht Britannia, which he helped to design, is retired in Leith in Edinburgh.

He was a friend of the Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, a patron of the National Galleries of Scotland, the Rotary Club of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh athletics club, and of course, he was chancellor of Edinburgh University for nearly 60 years from the 1950s—a position that he accepted with the joke that

“only a Scotsman could survive Scottish education”;

I am not sure whether that was born of experience at Gordonstoun. He was heavily involved in all aspects of the university. He would preside over special graduation ceremonies. He would help to induct new professors. He attended long service awards for senior staff. He would attend the installation of the rector by students. He enjoyed the uproar of the rector’s ceremony and complained to former Professor O’Shea that he had made the event “too orderly”. He partook in the granting of fellowships to postgraduate students at the University of Edinburgh undertaking advanced and complex research. However, he never shied away from engaging with the students on their complicated topics—everything from particle physics to Dolly the sheep. In fact, one recipient said afterwards:

“I feel I’ve just been put through another exam, except it was much harder than the last one.”

He had an official Edinburgh colour, Edinburgh green, which his team wore and which lined his private car, and his own official standard, featuring the lions and hearts of Denmark, a white cross on blue for Greece, two black pales on white for the Mountbatten family and the coat of arms of the city of Edinburgh. We have heard much this afternoon about the founding of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards in 1956, which he chaired until his 80th birthday. He regularly attended the gold ceremonies hosted at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. For many young people, those awards were the closest they would get to a traditional high school graduation, so the Duke of Edinburgh always took the time to individually speak to as many of the awardees as he could. It is a scheme that transformed the life chances of young people across the world, from the prince’s own school at Gordonstoun all the way to the school that I attended in Edinburgh.

Many people recall anecdotes of his sharp wit and humour. Everyone who has paid tribute since Friday has talked of him as a funny, engaging, warm and loving man. He once joked, while stuck in a lift during a visit to Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University, that it

“could only happen in a technical college.”

He was not just the Duke of Edinburgh in name but the Duke of Edinburgh in his actions and public service too. His legacy to the UK, the Commonwealth overseas territories and the wider world will be celebrated and will live on for many generations. His contribution to my city of Edinburgh will be unmatched.

Losing a loved one is always so hard. I lost my own father when he was just 39. His grandchildren will only know him by the stories that we tell and the anecdotes that we recall. But it does not matter whether you are 39 or 99, a duke or a cooper; the hurt and loss to those loved ones and friends never diminishes. On behalf of my constituents in Edinburgh South and the city of his title, we send our heartfelt condolences and thoughts to Her Majesty the Queen, his close and extended family and all who will miss him so much.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Murray Excerpts

Wednesday 10th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We now come to the shadow Secretary of State for the first of two questions.

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

I am sure that the Secretary of State would like to join me—I am sure he accidentally omitted it—in congratulating Anas Sarwar on becoming leader of the Scottish Labour party, the very first ethnic minority leader of any UK political party. I am sure that his positivity and optimism will transform Scotland when compared with what we have at the moment.

Business covid support in Scotland has been sporadic at best, and I hope that the Government will tell us how we will get a full transparent audit from the Scottish Government, following the Audit Scotland report last week that estimated that £2.7 billion was unspent, not including the £1.2 billion from last week’s Budget. Every penny needs to be spent now.

This Government talk a lot, as we have heard already, about a post-covid levelling-up green agenda, yet they are pursuing a policy in offshore renewables that benefits its business solely in the south-east of England. The Government’s fourth contracts for difference auction at the end of this year actively disadvantages viable Scottish offshore renewable projects, as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy includes out-of-date and expensive transmission charges in auction bids. What is the Secretary of State doing to ensure that the Government ditch this unfair renewables policy that advantages south-east England at the expense and detriment of perfectly viable offshore renewables projects off our Scottish coasts?

[Mr Jack]

May I begin by agreeing with the hon. Gentleman in welcoming Anas Sarwar as leader of the Scottish Labour party? I also completely agree with the hon. Gentleman that we need more transparency on the spending of the £9.6 billion of covid support and business support that the Scottish Government have received. On the transmission issue, as he will know, by law, transmission charging is a matter for Ofgem, which is an independent regulator. However, Ofgem is currently considering some aspects of the transmission charging arrangements through its access and forward-looking charges review, and I encourage all Scottish generators to engage with that review at the earliest opportunity.

[Ian Murray]

I accept the Secretary of State’s answer, but it will disadvantage projects. BEIS has said that it will not change the auction requirements and, therefore, unless the wind blows in the south-east estuary of England, renewables, including in Scotland, will be significantly disadvantaged.

Given the mess that the Scottish Government are making of business and industry in Scotland, from steel to airports, to ferries, to aluminium smelters, I hope that the UK Government deliver on their promise to protect the Scottish financial services sector post-covid and post-Brexit. Financial services have done very well from Brexit, as long as they are in Amsterdam or Frankfurt. In Scotland, the sector employs 162,000 people and is nearly 10% of the Scottish economy, but despite its importance, it was not included in the Brexit deal at all. Will the Secretary of State guarantee today that the sector will get a much needed post-covid boost by ensuring that the memorandum of understanding on financial services, which is due to be signed in a matter of days with the EU, gives this critical industry the equivalence and access to EU markets that it was promised by this Government?

[Mr Jack]

The UK and the EU have agreed in a joint declaration to establish structured regulatory co-operation for the financial services industry. A memorandum of undertaking will be agreed in discussions between us and the EU to establish a framework. Those discussions are currently ongoing at official level, but as with the Brexit negotiations, we cannot give a running commentary.