Cost of Living and Brexit

Debate between John Lamont and Luke Evans

Wednesday 14th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[John Lamont]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. Thankfully, it is not my job to defend the decisions of the SNP Government and the huge mistakes they have made in relation to ferries. What I do know is that this is having a huge impact on many of our island communities in Scotland and on economic development in those communities, because of a complete cock-up by the Scottish Government in delivering those ferries.

[Dr Luke Evans (Bosworth) (Con)]

I notice that the memorandum by the accounting officer that was released for this motion states at paragraph 3:

“Current select committee meeting rooms are not equipped for a committee of the proposed size and would need to be adapted to accommodate the Committee. The costs stated in this memorandum do not include the additional costs associated with such adaptation.”

Do the Government have any idea how much this adaptation would cost, or perhaps someone from the SNP could intervene and say?

[John Lamont]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight that. As I have pointed out, the estimated cost simply to set up this new Committee is almost £500,000 per annum. As he has correctly identified, there is the additional cost of adapting the existing Committee Rooms. I know many of my constituents in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk will be asking why on earth the SNP are proposing this when there are so many pressures on budgets for households and businesses. The SNP is proposing to spend more taxpayers’ money on this crackpot idea, which is a complete and utter nonsense.

The people of Scotland want their two Governments to be focused on tackling the cost of living, ensuring our future energy security and investing to support growth, and they want us to work together to do so. I therefore respectfully suggest that the SNP motion before us is not what we should be focusing on, and I urge right hon. and hon. Members to reject it.