Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Stephen Gethins and Kirsty McNeill(3 weeks, 5 days ago)
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Kirsty McNeill
I am very pleased to offer the hon. Lady that reassurance.
Stephen Gethins (Arbroath and Broughty Ferry) (SNP)
I join colleagues in congratulating Aberdeen FC, despite the impact of their victory on my beloved Dundee United. I also congratulate Arbroath FC on securing the Scottish league one championship title. The Scottish Government have reinstated the winter fuel payment for up to 88,000 pension-age veterans in Scotland, but the Prime Minister has said that it was right to slash the winter fuel payment. Was the Prime Minister right to slash it?
Kirsty McNeill
The hon. Member will be perfectly aware—as, indeed, everyone in the House will be—that questions about the winter fuel payment in Scotland are devolved to the Scottish Government. Decisions made in Scotland are the responsibility of the Scottish Government, but I am pleased to reiterate to the House what the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have said. This was a difficult decision, and now that we have a little more breathing space, we are very pleased to make changes to help more pensioners.
Stephen Gethins
I see that we are not going to get a straight answer out of the Minister, just as the people in Hamilton did not get a straight answer out of Labour’s candidate. That will be why Labour is sinking without a trace. Let me put it this way: does the Minister think that the Prime Minister was right to slash the winter fuel payment for up to 1 million veterans across the UK?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Stephen Gethins and Kirsty McNeill(5 months, 1 week ago)
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Kirsty McNeill
One in six Scots is on a waiting list today, and we face a housing emergency and a very stubborn attainment gap. Nobody could look around Scotland and say that it is going in the right direction. That is the choice that people will have to make in 2026: is Scotland going in the right or wrong direction? Canny Scots will, I am sure, make choices in the interest of their families and say that it is time to replace a failing SNP Government.
Kirsty McNeill
There is a third Member in a dreadful fankle. We said at the election that we would wait for the ombudsman’s report, we would examine it and we would take a view. We have a taken view: we have taken a view that up to £10 billion of public money should not be spent providing compensation on a decision that was legal and of which it has been concluded that the vast majority of 1950s-born women were aware.
Stephen Gethins
The Secretary of State recently reacted to Labour’s dip in the polls in Scotland by saying that the voters “don’t like honesty”. I wonder if it was more to do with Labour not keeping its commitment to women pensioners, or saying that it would decrease fuel bills—and they went up—or saying that it would tackle child poverty and then taking on some of the most regressive Tory policies on the two-child cap? As we approach Burns night, I wonder if the bard was right when he said:
“Dare to be honest and fear no labour.”
Nowadays, would he say, “Dare to be honest and fear the voters”?
Kirsty McNeill
Polls come, polls go. The fact remains that this Labour Government have provided record investment for Scottish public services. I suggest the hon. Member invests in a notepad so that he can keep track.