Business of the House

John Lamont Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue, and for writing to me and to the Modernisation Committee about it. I absolutely understand her motivation —to ensure that the House of Commons and, indeed, the wider Parliament is a safe place for people to work, and that our constituents and others can feel safe in their interactions with us. That is why over recent years, we have developed more robust systems around those issues, and we are looking further at them. However, I say gently to my hon. Friend that we need to strike a balance that ensures we can also represent our constituents freely and openly.

[John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)]

This week, Scottish Labour announced that it will abstain to allow the SNP Government’s Budget to pass through the Scottish Parliament. This is now typical of Scottish Labour, sitting on the fence and not standing up to the SNP in Scotland. Does the Leader of the House agree that there should be a statement on the UK Government’s priorities for Scotland, considering that her party promised change but is now endorsing the same old SNP tactics?

[Lucy Powell]

I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman’s characterisation. Scottish Labour and the Labour party have done more than most to stand up to the failures of the Scottish Government, of which there are many. That is why we have returned a record number of Labour MPs in Scotland who won seats directly from the Scottish National party. The Scottish National party and the Government there now have a huge amount of extra money thanks to this Government’s Budget. They have the powers to get that money to the frontline, and we want to see the lives of people in Scotland improved, but we believe that that will be done better when people vote for Scottish Labour in the future.