Oral Answers to Questions
Richard Baker Excerpts(2 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Kirsty McNeill
Those three trade deals are some of the proudest achievements of this Labour Government, and they will disproportionately benefit Scotland. As I have already said, it is home to some of the finest produce on the face of the Earth, and we are delighted to be promoting it as part of the Scotland Office’s Brand Scotland efforts.
Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)
Does my hon. Friend agree that the Chancellor’s excellent spending review for Scotland, which sets out record funding for the Scottish Government, means that SNP Ministers are ideally placed to offer the agricultural sector in Scotland a multi-year funding settlement, and that that is exactly what they should now do?
Kirsty McNeill
I agree with my hon. Friend that the Scottish Government have been blessed with a record settlement in the devolution era. The difficulty for those of us on the Labour Benches who have championed that settlement is that we are all too well aware, I am afraid, that the Scottish Government are absolutely addicted to wasting money. That is why the only way for Scotland to take a new direction is to replace the failing Scottish Government with a Labour one in May.
Spending Review 2025: Scotland
Richard Baker Excerpts(3 months ago)
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Stephen Gethins
The hon. Member is very kind in apparently conceding next year’s election already. I am quite surprised by that; he may have given up on it, but I think we should all be competing.
The hon. Member talks about the Scottish border. The border is obviously devolved to Westminster, so because we are holding Westminster to account, I ask the Minister to tackle the border issue as well. We are right to have greater connectivity and to be bringing down barriers with our European partners, so why on earth are we not going back into the single market and the customs union? After all, that was the compromise that Scottish Labour itself backed in the Scottish Parliament in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum. What on earth has gone so right that Labour has abandoned that policy and embraced the Conservative policy? I would be astonished to find out, and I wonder whether the Minister can tell us. Some thought and analysis would be helpful.
The real-terms increase in the budget looks like 0.8%—lower than the UK departmental average of 1.5%. That does not sound like much but would mean £1.1 billion less to spend by 2028-29. As I have mentioned to the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, the Fraser of Allendar Institute has called out Labour MPs’ claims as “neither transparent nor helpful”.
This place matters. As I said, we know that the Scottish Government have a national insurance shortfall as a consequence of the policies being brought in by Westminster, and we have not even got round to last night’s welfare changes, which left the Scottish Labour party high and dry. With the honourable exception of the hon. Member for Glenrothes and Mid Fife (Richard Baker), who, as I understand it, signed the original motion but did not follow through in the debate, Scottish Labour was marched up to the top of the hill by the Prime Minister to be left high and dry.
We were told that the welfare reforms proposed before all the changes yesterday would push 150,000 more people into poverty. A Labour Government pushing more people into poverty—astonishing. Although there have been changes, because of the profound impact on the job of the Scottish Government, whose Scottish child payment is helping to reduce poverty, they are still hampered by what goes on here. If the Minister prioritises nothing else that I have said, I ask her to prioritise this: where are we with the welfare changes and how many people does she now expect to be pushed into poverty?
Stephen Gethins
As I mentioned the hon. Member, it is only fair to give way.
Richard Baker
I might say that Labour Members have had rather more impact on Government policy than SNP Members. The hon. Gentleman makes important points about welfare and the importance of having the right system to get people back into work. Why, then, did his Government in Holyrood, of which he aspires to be a member, cut investment in employability funding?
Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) on securing this important debate. His constituents could not have a more doughty and effective champion in this place.
As a fellow Fife MP, I was particularly pleased to hear my hon. Friend address how the people of the kingdom will reap the rewards of the Government’s investment in Scotland and in their potential. That is in sharp contrast to the litany of failures they have had to endure under the barely managed decline, for which the Scottish National party is culpable, in Holyrood. I will return to these points later, while maintaining a laser focus on the spending review. But being in good spirits and savouring the cooler weather, for which we Scots are rather better equipped, let me focus first on the sunny uplands of the spending review and its great potential for Scotland.
I know we will hear more from the Minister on its importance for our country and how it will support the excellent work that she is taking forward in Government for Scotland. She does this along with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland, who has shown what a brilliant champion he is for Scotland in Cabinet. I will focus on the opportunities the spending review creates in my constituency.
My hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar outlined the scale of the overall investment that the Chancellor announced in the spending review for Scotland and how vital that is for public services and growing our economy across the country. Specific areas of investment are of particular importance for Glenrothes and Mid Fife. We have a thriving and growing renewables sector in the constituency, and the confirmation of the full £8.3 billion for GB Energy is great news for renewable energy businesses in our area and will create opportunities and employment.
At Earlseat wind farm, apprenticeships are being created in local renewables businesses through community benefit funding provided by its operator Renewable Energy Systems and a pioneering collaboration with Fife college. It was great to meet some of the apprentices at the wind farm, who will have great opportunities in the future as a result of that funding. Investing in renewables is also fantastic news for the Methil shipyard, which was saved by this Government. Its facilities and skilled workforce are ideally placed for contracts in renewables infrastructure and to deliver key programmes set out in the strategic defence review, which presents great opportunities for Scotland, as my hon. Friend said.
I am also particularly delighted that the Chancellor has confirmed development funding for the Acorn project. I agree with the hon. Member for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry (Stephen Gethins) that it is a very important scheme for Scotland, for which many of us across the Chamber campaigned. It will not only be vital for our renewables targets, but create and sustain thousands of jobs throughout Scotland. It is also a brilliant opportunity for two biomass plants in my constituency to maximise their contribution to carbon reduction in the future.
All that comes along with additional funding for investment zones and in our communities. With an extra £9.1 billion for public services in Scotland over the next three years, there can no longer be any excuses for SNP Ministers failing to deliver the public services our constituents need and deserve. Unfortunately, where we need to see delivery and improvements, all we seem to see are excuses. We have record funding for housing provided by this Government, but a housing emergency has been declared in Fife after funding cuts by the Scottish Government.
We have record funding provided for our NHS by this Government, and falling waiting lists in England for the first time in many years, but in Fife, my constituents face some of the longest waiting times for surgery anywhere in Scotland. In the NHS in England, we see investment in 700,000 additional urgent appointments for dental patients, but in Fife, we have a dental desert, where, too often, my constituents cannot find any dentist to register with, let alone an NHS one.
We have record spending set out in the spending review for NHS infrastructure, yet after more than a decade of broken promises to the people of Lochgelly by SNP Ministers, they still do not have the new health centre that their community desperately needs. No wonder so many people in Scotland want a change of direction in Holyrood. This is the prospectus that Anas Sarwar will set out in the Scottish elections next year, and why our country desperately needs his leadership as our next First Minister.
The spending review shows the ambition that Governments can and should have for Scotland. One of our Governments—this Government—is delivering for Scotland; it is time the other one stepped up to the plate and started delivering the effective leadership our country needs as well.
Andrew Bowie (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (Con)
It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Sir John, and I thank you for your patience and indulgence in chairing this debate.
It is almost a through-the-looking-glass moment this morning, listening to the Labour party criticising the Scottish Government for their decisions and the Scottish National party representative, the hon. Member for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry (Stephen Gethins), criticising the Labour Government for the SNP’s decisions. For all of us, it has been an interesting morning after the night before.
Scotland is struggling with the consequences of the Labour Government’s economic incompetence: taxes for businesses up, growth down, unemployment up and business confidence down. Scottish Financial Enterprise has warned:
“The current inflationary pressures, coupled with stagnant productivity and increasing levels of tax, pose significant headwinds to business investment.”
And that was before the charade—the farcical scenes—that we saw yesterday, which will inevitably mean more tax rises coming down the tracks in the autumn.
Richard Baker
Is it not the reality that economic growth is increasing under this Labour Government, in rather sharp contrast to the experiences of hon. Members under Liz Truss, which I think were somewhat different for the whole country, including Scotland?
Oral Answers to Questions
Richard Baker Excerpts(3 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Ian Murray
There is a simple answer to that question: the SNP Scottish Government.
Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)
When my right hon. Friend discusses with SNP Ministers, through announcements made this week, the huge employment opportunities that this Government have created for young people in Scotland, will he impress on them the urgent need to finally tackle the persistent—and in some areas widening—attainment gap faced by pupils from poorer backgrounds, not only in Fife but in South Lanarkshire? These concerns are often raised by residents of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.
Ian Murray
The House may not know that last year, 1,351 pupils left high school in Scotland without a single qualification to their name, and one in six Scots is not in education, employment or training. That is the legacy of the SNP Scottish Government. What have they done about jobs and growth? They are against the defence industry and against the trade deals with the EU, India and the US. They are against young Scots in Scotland.
Budget: Scotland
Richard Baker Excerpts(8 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. In my one minute, I will talk about a real opportunity for my constituents to boost our renewable sector through the investment that has been outlined in the Budget, and also through the crucial decision made by colleagues in Government—through the hard work of the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade—to secure the future of the Methil yard in my constituency, along with the future of the Arnish yard in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Torcuil Crichton). Together, that will save over 350 jobs and skilled apprenticeships. What a fantastic opportunity we have.
I hope there will be collaboration between the Scottish and UK Governments to look at the future of both those yards. We have so much more potential in our energy sector than we are currently realising—particularly our renewable sector—and those yards have a crucial role to play. Their potential to grow the workforce and their economic impact are massive. Through the £125 million investment in GB Energy, based in Aberdeen, the opportunity is there to build for the future.
With almost £5.8 billion allocated in the national wealth fund, we should be working together to look for bids for how those yards can work in the future to ensure economic benefit and growth for Scotland. Those are the priorities that we should look to for the future, and they are being offered because of the actions taken by the Chancellor in this Budget.
Oral Answers to Questions
Richard Baker Excerpts(9 months, 4 weeks ago)
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The Prime Minister
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising this issue. I think he will well know and understand that our position is a continuation of the position under the last Government.
Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)
Does the Prime Minister share my concern at a report by Audit Scotland, which has found that the Scottish Government have no clear plan for the NHS in Scotland? As a Scottish Labour MP, I am delighted that this Government are providing £4.9 billion extra for public services in Scotland. Is it not time for SNP Ministers to get a grip and do better for patients in my constituency, who face some of the longest waiting times for surgery in Scotland?
The Prime Minister
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this issue, because waiting lists in Scotland are appalling. That is why we make the argument that, now that the Scottish Government have the money and the resources, there are no more excuses for poor delivery.
Oral Answers to Questions
Richard Baker Excerpts(1 year ago)
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Gordon McKee (Glasgow South) (Lab)
Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)
The Secretary of State for Scotland (Ian Murray)
Scotland is at the forefront of this Government’s mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030. We will headquarter Great British Energy, a new publicly owned clean energy company, capitalised with £8.3 billion, in Scotland. That will help create thousands of jobs, and deliver energy security and lower prices permanently for consumers. Just this week, the sixth allocation for the contracts for difference scheme was announced, with over 130 renewable projects awarded contracts and 20% of those projects based in Scotland.
Ian Murray
I congratulate my hon. Friend on winning his seat in Glasgow South. His question is much better than any that he ever wrote for me.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero is due to make an announcement on the location of GB Energy very soon. I regret that, in the interim, I can say no more than that, although I am sure that my hon. Friend’s words of encouragement in respect of Glasgow will not have escaped the attention of my Cabinet colleagues. I can announce exclusively to the House today, Mr Speaker, that GB Energy will be headquartered in Scotland.
Richard Baker
My right hon. Friend will be aware that I have been working closely with Unite, GMB and local management at the Methil yard in my constituency during the restructuring process at Harland & Wolff. Does he agree that 200 skilled workers at Methil and those at Arnish have a vital contribution to make to our ambitions to grow our renewable sector, and also that all stakeholders have a vital role in securing the long-term future of these yards?
Ian Murray
I congratulate my hon. Friend on winning Glenrothes and Mid Fife. I acknowledge his efforts, and those of many hon. Friends in the House and of people in the local area, advocating for the Methil fabrication yard. The yard, along with many others like it, will have a key role in fulfilling our ambition for Scotland and the UK to become a green energy powerhouse. In addition to GB Energy, there is the national wealth fund, which will help unlock further investment opportunities for ports and heavy industry, and manufacturing companies will have a crucial role to play in creating jobs in our transition to net zero. I have been to the Methil plant twice. It has a world-class workforce, and I can assure them that we will do everything we possibly can to make sure that they have a bright future.