Richard Leonard
Scottish Labour · Scotland
“And yet we still hear calls, even during this stage 3 debate, in this, the third decade of the 21st century, in this Parliament, for the entitled voice of the laird and the privileged status of the landlord to be afforded their due place, as if they were a silent—they were an underrepresented—class in our society. If only they were.”
“It feels right to make my final speech in a debate led for Labour by Rhoda Grant, whose unswerving, loyal support to me in Parliament I have valued above all others’, and in a debate which, at its very essence, is about power, is about wealth, is about control and its ugly, unequal distribution.”
“Before I finish, before I leave for the very last time, I want to thank the outstanding people who have worked with me over the last 10 years: Billy McCauley, Thomas Mulvey, Craig Miller, Lesley Brennan, Lauren Harper, Linda Shevlin, Rich Simcox, and the one person who has been there from the very first to the very last, Mike Holmes.”
“So let me finish where it all began: two years after the very first crofters holdings act was passed, in direct response to the land raids, the forced Highland clearances, the battles against eviction—resistance often led by the women of the crofts—it was the crofters, led by their MP, Dr G B Clark, and the miners, led by Keir Hardie, who…”
“Eight years in the making, the Government has come up with a largely technical bill, which we will vote for, but it is the same formula that the Government has been habitually serving up—on the broader question of land reform, on a national care service, on community wealth building.”
“This is my last speech to Parliament as a member, after 10 years. As a back bencher and a front bencher, as a party leader and a committee convener, I have always tried to speak out not only for the labour and trade union movement who sent me here, but for all of those oppressed, denied justice, exploited, voiceless—and so, for those seas…”
The complete record
Every one of 399 lines we hold for Richard Leonard, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 5 of 8.
“Graham Simpson: Richard Leonard has outlined a disgraceful situation in which people in this country are having to live in such substandard conditions. Nobody should have to do that. My understanding of what he is telling us is that there are no rules that protect those people. There seem to be no inspections of the accommodation or the standard of it. Is that his understanding, too? Richard Leonard: Yes, it is. I got a parliamentary answer from Paul McLennan on 12 November 2024 in which he said: “Caravans and static homes provided by employers through a Service Occupancy Agreement are not subject to housing standards.”
“The tolerable standard applies to every house in a local authority area, but it does not apply to this accommodation. Under the 1987 act, mobile homes are not considered houses, so they fall outwith the scope of the tolerable standard. That is what we need to address. There are provisions through byelaws, so I sent a freedom of information request to every local authority in Scotland last year, and not one of the 27 that responded had any such byelaw. Amendment 349 seeks to bring them within scope. Finally, amendment 350 is yet another route to simply end the exemption of seasonal workers’ accommodation from the provisions of the law—in this case, the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960.”
“My view is that the Agricultural Wages Board, which enforces the accommodation rate on these seasonal workers, should also be the board that enforces the accommodation standards for these seasonal workers. Twenty-one Scottish Government employees currently carry out inspections as part of their work, and they work in the rural payments and inspections division. That is the division that pays out £660 million a year in farm payments on our behalf, so I would argue that that gives them—and it gives us—some leverage. Amendment 349 is another way of breaking the impasse and closing the exemptions and loopholes in the current legal framework. Under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987, local authorities have a duty to ensure that houses meet a “tolerable standard” and, if they do not, to close or demolish them.”
“Amendment 348 requires inspectors in the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board to ensure that this seasonal workers accommodation is fit for human habitation. It is similar to an amendment that I lodged last year to the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill. At stage 2 of the Housing (Scotland) Bill, Ariane Burgess also lodged a similar amendment but did not move it. The cabinet secretary said in response at stage 2: “I absolutely recognise the point that you are making, and I would be happy to provide that information in writing to you and the committee following today’s discussions.”— [Official Report, Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, 20 May 2025; c 26.] But when a note was sent to the committee after the cabinet secretary’s appearance before it, as far as I can see, nothing was included that addressed this.”
“I raised this in questions in Parliament back in May to the then Minister for Housing as a call to action. But I repeat: nothing has changed. The First Minister told ITN over a year ago that he found the pictures that he was shown by the journalist Peter Smith “completely unacceptable” and “troubling”, and that he would take a personal interest. But I repeat: one year later, nothing has changed. I say to the First Minister today: three out of the six biggest areas of employment of seasonal migrant labourers are in Scotland—in Angus, in Fife and in Perth and Kinross. This is rightly troubling for the First Minister—it should be rightly troubling for all of us—but there is no one more troubled than those workers sleeping out in those fields tonight.”
“Let me also put on the record that I am talking here about the living conditions of both men and women workers. I cannot help feeling, because much of this accommodation is out of sight and because these are migrant workers who feel unable to speak out publicly for fear of being blacklisted, that they have been abandoned and expected to survive not just in squalor but in slave- like conditions. Following amendments that I lodged to the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill last year, and thanks to agitation inside and outside Parliament by the highly effective Worker Support Centre, which is an outstanding advocate for these workers, the Government set up a working group, which has been carrying out a scoping exercise, looking at what can be done.”
“When the president of the National Farmers Union Scotland tells us at the weekend: “Profitability must be front and centre if we are serious about sustainable farming”, he needs to reflect on this. When I met those workers just last month, they showed me photographs, played video evidence and gave me personal testimony of caravans in the middle of fields, dangerously perched on bricks, with gaps in the walls and ceilings so wide that the workers freeze at night; of dampness and mould; of containers with no windows or ventilation; of caravans with windows that will not close; of overcrowding, with caravans that are designed for four commonly sleeping six. Poignantly, they spoke of the safety risks that they face, including the risk of fire.”
“I have met these workers a number of times over the last year and a half to hear their experiences at first hand. When I met them again just a few weeks ago, they told me that as long as this Parliament fails to legislate, fails to act and fails to enforce, nothing will change. Even with an exposé on national television by ITN, nothing has changed—oh, except their rent. That changed—it has gone up again this year from £70 a week to £74 a week. That is £11,000 per caravan per season. Those workers are on £12.21 an hour. I have to ask, as I have asked in Parliament before, where does all that money go? Where does all that rental income go, because it is not reinvested in improving the standard of accommodation?”
“My three amendments in this group are three different means, but each to the same end: to close the current legal loophole that allows for the exploitation of seasonal migrant workers on farms across Scotland, and so to end the national scandal of these farm workers who have no protection whatsoever—none—over the standard of their accommodation. There are 6,000 to 7,000 migrant workers on six-month-long seasonal visas in Scotland, mostly coming from central Asia. Ninety-five per cent of them are tied into accommodation with their employer. That accommodation, in almost all cases—caravans, portakabins and even containers; windowless metal boxes—are all exempt from regulation, exempt from standards and exempt from inspections. There is no national law, no local byelaw, no national inspection and no local inspection.”
“Amendment 65 agreed to. The Presiding Officer: I suggest that we have a comfort break for 15 minutes, colleagues. I would be grateful if members could be back in the chamber for just before 17:40. 17:22 Meeting suspended. 17:41 On resuming— Section 15—Information that may be sought by local authority”
“On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My yes button would not work, but I would have voted yes. The Presiding Officer: Thank you, Mr Leonard. We will ensure that your vote is recorded. For Adam, George (Paisley) (SNP) Adam, Karen (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP) Adamson, Clare (Motherwell and Wishaw) (SNP) Allan, Alasdair (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP) Arthur, Tom (Renfrewshire South) (SNP) Baillie, Jackie (Dumbarton) (Lab) Baker, Claire (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab) Beattie, Colin (Midlothian North and Musselburgh) (SNP) Bibby, Neil (West Scotland) (Lab) Boyack, Sarah (Lothian) (Lab) Briggs, Miles (Lothian) (Con) Brown, Keith (Clackmannanshire and Dunblane) (SNP) Brown, Siobhian (Ayr) (SNP) Burnett, Alexander (Aberdeenshire West) (Con) Callaghan, Stephanie (Uddingston and Bellshill) (SNP) Carlaw, Jackson (Eastwood) (Con) Carson, Finlay (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Con) Choudhury, Foysol (Lothian) (Lab) Clark, Katy (West Scotland) (Lab) Constance, Angela (Almond Valley) (SNP) Dey, Graeme (Angus South) (SNP) Don-Innes, Natalie (Renfrewshire North and West) (SNP) Doris, Bob (Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn) (SNP) Dornan, James (Glasgow Cathcart) (SNP) Dowey, Sharon (South Scotland) (Con) Dunbar, Jackie (Aberdeen Donside) (SNP) Duncan-Glancy, Pam (Glasgow) (Lab) Eagle, Tim (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Ewing, Annabelle (Cowdenbeath) (SNP) Ewing, Fergus (Inverness and Nairn) (Ind) Fairlie, Jim (Perthshire South and Kinross-shire) (SNP) Forbes, Kate (Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) (SNP) Fraser, Murdo (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Gallacher, Meghan (Central Scotland) (Con) Gilruth, Jenny (Mid Fife and Glenrothes) (SNP) Golden, Maurice (North East Scotland) (Con) Gougeon, Mairi (Angus North and Mearns) (SNP) Grahame, Christine (Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale) (SNP) Grant, Rhoda (Highlands and Islands) (Lab) Gray, Neil (Airdrie and Shotts) (SNP) Greene, Jamie (West Scotland) (LD) Griffin, Mark (Central Scotland) (Lab) Hamilton, Rachael (Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (Con) Harper, Emma (South Scotland) (SNP) Haughey, Clare (Rutherglen) (SNP) Hepburn, Jamie (Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) (SNP) Hyslop, Fiona (Linlithgow) (SNP) Johnson, Daniel (Edinburgh Southern) (Lab) Halcro Johnston, Jamie (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Kerr, Liam (North East Scotland) (Con) Kerr, Stephen (Central Scotland) (Con) Kidd, Bill (Glasgow Anniesland) (SNP) Lennon, Monica (Central Scotland) (Lab) Leonard, Richard (Central Scotland) (Lab) Lochhead, Richard (Moray) (SNP) Lumsden, Douglas (North East Scotland) (Con) MacDonald, Gordon (Edinburgh Pentlands) (SNP) MacGregor, Fulton (Coatbridge and Chryston) (SNP) Mackay, Rona (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (SNP) Macpherson, Ben (Edinburgh Northern and Leith) (SNP) Maguire, Ruth (Cunninghame South) (SNP) Mason, John (Glasgow Shettleston) (Ind) Matheson, Michael (Falkirk West) (SNP) McAllan, Màiri (Clydesdale) (SNP) McArthur, Liam (Orkney Islands) (LD) McCall, Roz (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) McKee, Ivan (Glasgow Provan) (SNP) McLennan, Paul (East Lothian) (SNP) McMillan, Stuart (Greenock and Inverclyde) (SNP) McNair, Marie (Clydebank and Milngavie) (SNP) Minto, Jenni (Argyll and Bute) (SNP) Mochan, Carol (South Scotland) (Lab) Mountain, Edward (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Mundell, Oliver (Dumfriesshire) (Con) Nicoll, Audrey (Aberdeen South and North Kincardine) (SNP) Rennie, Willie (North East Fife) (LD) Robertson, Angus (Edinburgh Central) (SNP) Robison, Shona (Dundee City East) (SNP) Roddick, Emma (Highlands and Islands) (SNP) Ross, Douglas (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Rowley, Alex (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab) Russell, Davy (Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse) (Lab) Simpson, Graham (Central Scotland) (Reform) Somerville, Shirley-Anne (Dunfermline) (SNP) Stevenson, Collette (East Kilbride) (SNP) [Proxy vote cast by Fulton MacGregor] Stewart, Alexander (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Stewart, Kaukab (Glasgow Kelvin) (SNP) Stewart, Kevin (Aberdeen Central) (SNP) Sturgeon, Nicola (Glasgow Southside) (SNP) Sweeney, Paul (Glasgow) (Lab) Swinney, John (Perthshire North) (SNP) Todd, Maree (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP) Torrance, David (Kirkcaldy) (SNP) Tweed, Evelyn (Stirling) (SNP) Villalba, Mercedes (North East Scotland) (Lab) Webber, Sue (Lothian) (Con) Wells, Annie (Glasgow) (Con) White, Tess (North East Scotland) (Con) Whitfield, Martin (South Scotland) (Lab) Whitham, Elena (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (SNP) Whittle, Brian (South Scotland) (Con) Wishart, Beatrice (Shetland Islands) (LD) Yousaf, Humza (Glasgow Pollok) (SNP) Against Balfour, Jeremy (Lothian) (Ind) Abstentions Burgess, Ariane (Highlands and Islands) (Green) Chapman, Maggie (North East Scotland) (Green) Greer, Ross (West Scotland) (Green) Harvie, Patrick (Glasgow) (Green) Mackay, Gillian (Central Scotland) (Green) [Proxy vote cast by Ross Greer] Ruskell, Mark (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green) Slater, Lorna (Lothian) (Green) The Presiding Officer: The result of the division is: For 103, Against 1, Abstentions 7.”
“It is important to underline that the committee believes that we should consider empowering the Scottish Human Rights Commission with powers of litigation, giving new scope for more strategic powers to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and widening and deepening the powers of the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland. It was a privilege to serve on this committee. I hope that our findings do make a difference—that they will not gather dust but contribute to the battle for effective scrutiny and accountability, and the battle for the very soul of democracy itself. 16:37”
“Anyway, that is on the record. Can I be even-handed, though? We also spoke to the now-departed Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, who, I have to say, to my bewilderment, told me that she would not want “true enforcement powers”, just at the very point that the Labour Government was openly defying the recommendations of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman at Westminster on the award of compensation to the WASPI women—women against state pension inequality—after it found the Department for Work and Pensions guilty of maladministration. I am not, here, making a narrow party political point. These are matters that go to the very heart of what we are debating, where powers rest and whether powers of enforcement exist.”
“I was also a little bit surprised by some of the remarks of the minister, who told us, I thought rather dismissively, that “A commissioner is one voice among several”—[Official Report, SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee, 8 May 2025; c 10.], although this is a Minister for Public Finance who told Parliament just last week that he did not think it was a matter for him that the GFG Alliance has not submitted audited accounts for years and was the subject of a Serious Fraud Office investigation. Ivan McKee: Just to be clear, my point was that, as the Government, we would not comment on a Serious Fraud Office investigation that was under way. Richard Leonard: I think that you said that company law was reserved and that, therefore, you were not prepared to comment on the lodging or not of audited accounts.”
“For example, the Scottish Information Commissioner told us that he was, in his own words, facing “a never-ending cycle of constant audit”.—[Official Report, SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee, 20 February 2025; c 16.], and he spoke of the “disproportionality of the governance model”. In my view, he failed to recognise that these are about assurance and accountability, and failed to recognise that, in the end, he, other commissioners and the bodies that the committee reviewed are spending public money. I am bound to refer him, and any elected members of this Parliament who also think that we are overaudited, to the recent case of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland.”
“I do not say this lightly, neither do I say it merely to address the fleeting challenges of the present or the world as we have come to know it, but to safeguard democratic rights in the future, because, make no mistake, there are those on the right of politics—not just those in power across the Atlantic, but some seeking power here—who, if ever given the chance, would seek to hollow our democracy out; would seek to close debate and challenge down; would seek to impose a form of authoritarianism in place of democracy. So, those institutions that we speak of in this debate today, I warn, in the future, we democrats will have to defend. Some of the evidence that the committee took, I confess, took me a little bit by surprise.”
“This committee report raises wider questions about how our democracy works, including, I have to say, how do we avoid an overconcentration of power in the hands of the executive, how do we prevent a marginalisation of Parliament as the people’s guardian, and how do we stop an erosion of civil liberties and citizens’ rights? So, it is about perpetually upholding confidence and constantly rebuilding the people’s trust in the political process, making sure that those who govern are accountable to those who are governed. That is therefore about not just how we defend the fabric, the resilience and the integrity of our democracy but how we defend democracy itself.”
“I will start with an observation as a member of the SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee. Although small in number, albeit overinflated in title and big in scope, I strongly believe that it proved to be more effective than many parliamentary committees with over twice its size of membership. I also record that the model of short, sharp, time-limited committees, in my view, is effective and is a model that is worth returning to. I described the committee’s purpose as being big in scope because this is not simply about whether there are shared back-office services between commissioners or how extensive the audit arrangements for them are. Neither should the debate today be reduced to considering how many commissioners and commissions there are, or should be in the future.”
“How does the minister believe this fits with the Scottish Government’s fair work first principles and the fair work dimensions of effective voice, security and respect? Graeme Dey: I have already outlined what our expectations are around these matters. Richard Leonard paints a picture with a very specific interpretation of what is happening at the University of Edinburgh. He will appreciate that I am not fully sighted on the detail that he has outlined. However, I undertake, through the Scottish Funding Council, to seek to explore the very points that he has made, and I will come back to the member on that.”
“Compulsory redundancies should be considered only as a last resort, after all other cost-saving measures have been fully explored. Richard Leonard: I thank the minister for that reply. The University of Edinburgh is our largest university and one of the most prestigious. It is currently in dispute with the University and College Union over job losses and a failure to rule out compulsory redundancies. UCU members took strike action on Friday 20 June and a further five days from 8 September. While senior managers held dispute resolution talks with the UCU on 12 June, ahead of the first strike day, and met the joint unions on 24 July, the university has made no effort since then to meet with the UCU and is instead moving ahead with job cuts through so- called targeted voluntary redundancy.”
“To ask the Scottish Government what interventions it has made to end the current dispute over jobs and cuts in the higher education sector. (S6O-04956) The Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Minister for Veterans (Graeme Dey): Although universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own operational and staffing matters, I have continued to encourage university leaders to engage constructively with trade unions and to seek resolution to local disputes in line with fair work principles. That should include meaningful staff consultation on the potential impact of their cost- saving programmes and working together with staff and trade unions to ensure that workers are treated fairly.”
“In fact, the attempt to cover this up by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency—which is, let us not forget, answerable to this Parliament and the Ministry of Defence—has been almost overtaken by events, with the revelation that, between January and April this year, a category A nuclear incident took place. For me, there can only be one answer, and it is nuclear disarmament: unilateral nuclear disarmament. It is nuclear decommissioning. It is defence diversification. It is arms conversion. It is not an illusory defence dividend that we want; it is a peace dividend that we demand. It is the right to live in peace, to live outside the shadow of the nuclear menace, and to live outside the shadow of war: in short, it is a simple demand to stay alive. 17:03”
“So this jetty was problematic from the very start, and now it has been exposed as having “shortfalls in maintenance” and components beyond their design life, leading to the release of radioactive material into Loch Long, a sea loch, and the flooding of a nuclear weapons processing area. This should come as no surprise. Corrosion in pipes and radioactive leaks are a hallmark of the nuclear industry, not least in the so-called “civil” nuclear programme. So I will make a prediction that these will not be the last incidents or the last accidents at the base.”
“Quite the opposite—they make us much less safe and they corrode our democracy. Over 30 years ago, I co-authored a pamphlet with the late and much-missed John Ainslie, where I examined the construction of the explosives handling jetty at the royal naval armaments depot at Coulport—which, of course, is where those nuclear weapons, those warheads, are stored, maintained and then fitted. Originally estimated to cost £120 million, the jetty had already spiralled to £275 million, and faced considerable delay because of design and other failures, which meant that extensive and expensive steel reinforcements were necessary—a fact later confirmed by the National Audit Office.”
“Because these weapons and those bases do not strengthen our economy, our defences, our democracy. They do not strengthen our economy—they weaken it. They should never be considered as any part of any industrial strategy or any growth deal. And nuclear weapons are not a deterrent at all; they only serve to spread nuclear proliferation. And, of course, it is not our deterrent in any case. It is not independent. We could only use it with the sanctioning of the Pentagon, the say-so of the White House, and the approval of Donald Trump— a man who has changed the name of the US Department of Defense to the US Department of War, and a man who wants to ethnically cleanse Gaza so that he can “own” the land. What is also clear is that nuclear weapons, and the secrecy that surrounds them, do not make us safer.”
“I thank Bill Kidd for lodging this important motion. Even now, we are told, the Scottish Government does not know exactly what has been happening at Coulport and Faslane with these latest radioactive leaks. Members of this Parliament and the people who elect us only know what we know because of the dogged investigative journalism of The Ferret, the courage of papers like The Guardian to publish, and the belligerence of the Scottish Information Commissioner. This debate is important, but it is also timely. Donald Trump is, after all, making an official state visit to the UK. So we should send the 47th President of the United States a very clear message from the Scottish Parliament: that we oppose nuclear weapons, that we oppose nuclear and US military bases, and that we want to see the removal of both.”
“However, that still would not allow us to identify a particular company or location. We have to operate within the law. If the member wants the law to be changed, he will have an ally here on delivering those reforms.”
“I remind members of my entry in the register of interests. Will the Government give environmental performance, social value and Scottish economic impact much greater weighting in the evaluation criteria in future rounds of its Scottish zero- emissions bus challenge fund? Kate Forbes: As the member will know, particularly from my earlier quite long answer, we operate within the legislation and regulation that we are required to operate within. Any of the changes that the company itself has said that it wants would have to be done through the UK Government. When all this news broke, I received so much advice about what changes we could make. For example, one recommendation from Labour was to use the Crown Commercial Services contract, because that had worked in Manchester.”
“Politics remains at its core a choice, a division between left and right—tackling economic inequality and injustice and a redistribution of power on the one hand or relying on trickle-down, the free market and free trade on the other. Members of this Parliament need to decide which side of that division, which side of that choice they are on. The Deputy Presiding Officer: We have eaten into some of the available time, so the generosity will be scaled back just a little. 16:23”
“I remain more convinced than ever that the answers lie in greater economic planning; the development of an industrial strategy; on fair trade, not free trade; on the diversification of our export base, the diversification of our producers and our markets and not an intensification in the United States; on greater self-reliance and a strategy of import substitution as part of our response to climate change; more co-operative and employee ownership; and genuine community wealth building and democracy in our economy. In this Trades Union Congress week, that means stronger trade unions and a radical extension of workers’ rights.”
“As for the Deputy First Minister’s claim at the weekend that independence is an “economic necessity”, that is a soundbite that wilfully ignores the economic facts of the extent of our industrial integration, of the depth of our economic, fiscal and monetary interdependency, of the pattern of our trading relationships—that we export one and a half times more to the rest of the UK than we do to the whole of the rest of the world put together. But neither do I think that the answers to global uncertainty and declining exports are to be found in growth deals based on military rearmament, the war machine and the arms trade. The very idea of a defence dividend is misleading. What about the opportunity cost, and what kind of dividend is it when the international development aid budget is put to the sword to pay for it?”
“Well, this afternoon, the Government is asking us to put our faith in its updated export strategy, but since “A Trading Nation” was launched in May 2019 with its stated aim of growing international exports from 20 per cent of GDP to 25 per cent of GDP, our international exports have not risen. In fact, according to the Scottish Parliament information centre, they slumped to just 18.6 per cent of GDP in 2021. Neither will we find the answer in the Government’s latest six-point export plan, which calls for, among other things, an ever-greater dependency on foreign direct investment, when our economy is already overcolonised by a small number of transnational corporations. Just 60 firms now account for half of the total value of all our international exports.”
“And in recent weeks, the United Nations has warned that the Trump trade tariffs “risk disrupting deeply integrated production networks”, a recognition that, while we talk of nation-to-nation international trade, increasingly trade flows are dominated by intra-company transfers—circular trading within transnational corporations. So much so, that an index of manufacturing intra-industry trade produced by United Nations Trade and Development and revealed just last week said that the UK is second only to Canada in its exposure to this disruption, that we are twice as much at risk of Trump’s trade wars as China and India combined. So what are the solutions?”
“In my lifetime, from working as an economist at the Scottish Trades Union Congress to bearing personal testimony to the damage inflicted by the neoliberal experiment on my own family—the direct, deliberate and despicable result of Government policy which closed factory after factory, mine after mine, shipyard after shipyard— there has been no economic doctrine more dominant than the doctrine of free trade. Of course, it was then, and has always been, a fallacy—a fool’s gold. We do not really have free trade at all. Most markets are rigged, managed or monopolised. They are not free. In recent months, we yet again witnessed its grim toll with the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery and its replacement with an import terminal.”
“The business is taking steps to audit accounts, but, as Richard Leonard knows, company law is not a devolved matter. We have published information on the deals as far as we can within the limits of commercial confidentiality. Indeed, my statement included a series of numbers on that. However, the important point is that the plants continue to employ the workers and add value to local economies. Back in 2016, the Government took proactive steps to prevent their closure. If we had not done that, I think that Mr Leonard would, along with the rest of us, be facing a situation in which those plants would not be operating. Obviously, none of us would have wanted that. We have done the right thing, and we will ensure that those plants continue to employ workers.”
“In March 2024, I asked the then Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy to make a full statement to Parliament on the Government’s exposure to risk as a result of its arrangements with Sanjeev Gupta. I also called on the Government, in the interests of transparency, to finally publish, in full, details of all the deals that it has done with Mr Gupta, the GFG Alliance and all of its subsidiary companies. Now, with a continuing investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into fraud, fraudulent trading and money laundering by the GFG group, with further financial meltdown and with no audited accounts lodged with Companies House for years, will the Government now publish the details of those deals? Ivan McKee: First, I am obviously not in a position to comment on the SFO investigation. It is not for us to comment on that.”
“Amendment agreed to. The Presiding Officer: The amendment in the name of Mark Griffin falls. The next question is, that motion S6M-18780, in the name of Craig Hoy, on the impact of accommodating asylum seekers on Scottish local government, as amended, be agreed to. Are we agreed? Members: No. The Presiding Officer: There will be a division. The vote is closed.”
“On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app would not connect. I would have voted no. The Presiding Officer: Thank you, Mr Leonard. We will ensure that that is recorded. For Adam, George (Paisley) (SNP) Adam, Karen (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP) Adamson, Clare (Motherwell and Wishaw) (SNP) Allan, Alasdair (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP) Arthur, Tom (Renfrewshire South) (SNP) Balfour, Jeremy (Lothian) (Ind) Beattie, Colin (Midlothian North and Musselburgh) (SNP) Brown, Keith (Clackmannanshire and Dunblane) (SNP) Brown, Siobhian (Ayr) (SNP) Burgess, Ariane (Highlands and Islands) (Green) Callaghan, Stephanie (Uddingston and Bellshill) (SNP) Chapman, Maggie (North East Scotland) (Green) Coffey, Willie (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (SNP) Cole-Hamilton, Alex (Edinburgh Western) (LD) Constance, Angela (Almond Valley) (SNP) Dey, Graeme (Angus South) (SNP) Don-Innes, Natalie (Renfrewshire North and West) (SNP) Doris, Bob (Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn) (SNP) Dornan, James (Glasgow Cathcart) (SNP) Dunbar, Jackie (Aberdeen Donside) (SNP) Ewing, Annabelle (Cowdenbeath) (SNP) Fairlie, Jim (Perthshire South and Kinross-shire) (SNP) Forbes, Kate (Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) (SNP) Gibson, Kenneth (Cunninghame North) (SNP) Gilruth, Jenny (Mid Fife and Glenrothes) (SNP) Gougeon, Mairi (Angus North and Mearns) (SNP) Grahame, Christine (Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale) (SNP) Gray, Neil (Airdrie and Shotts) (SNP) Greene, Jamie (West Scotland) (LD) Greer, Ross (West Scotland) (Green) Harvie, Patrick (Glasgow) (Green) Haughey, Clare (Rutherglen) (SNP) Hepburn, Jamie (Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) (SNP) Hyslop, Fiona (Linlithgow) (SNP) Kidd, Bill (Glasgow Anniesland) (SNP) Lochhead, Richard (Moray) (SNP) MacDonald, Gordon (Edinburgh Pentlands) (SNP) MacGregor, Fulton (Coatbridge and Chryston) (SNP) Mackay, Gillian (Central Scotland) (Green) [Proxy vote cast by Ross Greer] Mackay, Rona (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (SNP) Macpherson, Ben (Edinburgh Northern and Leith) (SNP) Maguire, Ruth (Cunninghame South) (SNP) Martin, Gillian (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP) Mason, John (Glasgow Shettleston) (Ind) Matheson, Michael (Falkirk West) (SNP) McAllan, Màiri (Clydesdale) (SNP) McArthur, Liam (Orkney Islands) (LD) McKee, Ivan (Glasgow Provan) (SNP) McLennan, Paul (East Lothian) (SNP) McMillan, Stuart (Greenock and Inverclyde) (SNP) McNair, Marie (Clydebank and Milngavie) (SNP) Minto, Jenni (Argyll and Bute) (SNP) Nicoll, Audrey (Aberdeen South and North Kincardine) (SNP) Regan, Ash (Edinburgh Eastern) (Alba) Rennie, Willie (North East Fife) (LD) Robertson, Angus (Edinburgh Central) (SNP) Robison, Shona (Dundee City East) (SNP) Roddick, Emma (Highlands and Islands) (SNP) Ruskell, Mark (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green) Slater, Lorna (Lothian) (Green) Somerville, Shirley-Anne (Dunfermline) (SNP) Stewart, Kaukab (Glasgow Kelvin) (SNP) Stewart, Kevin (Aberdeen Central) (SNP) Sturgeon, Nicola (Glasgow Southside) (SNP) Swinney, John (Perthshire North) (SNP) Thomson, Michelle (Falkirk East) (SNP) Todd, Maree (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP) Torrance, David (Kirkcaldy) (SNP) Tweed, Evelyn (Stirling) (SNP) Whitham, Elena (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (SNP) Wishart, Beatrice (Shetland Islands) (LD) [Proxy vote cast by Willie Rennie] Yousaf, Humza (Glasgow Pollok) (SNP) Against Baillie, Jackie (Dumbarton) (Lab) Baker, Claire (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab) Bibby, Neil (West Scotland) (Lab) Boyack, Sarah (Lothian) (Lab) Briggs, Miles (Lothian) (Con) Burnett, Alexander (Aberdeenshire West) (Con) Carson, Finlay (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Con) Choudhury, Foysol (Lothian) (Lab) Dowey, Sharon (South Scotland) (Con) Duncan-Glancy, Pam (Glasgow) (Lab) Eagle, Tim (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Findlay, Russell (West Scotland) (Con) Fraser, Murdo (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Gallacher, Meghan (Central Scotland) (Con) Gosal, Pam (West Scotland) (Con) Griffin, Mark (Central Scotland) (Lab) Gulhane, Sandesh (Glasgow) (Con) Hamilton, Rachael (Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (Con) Hoy, Craig (South Scotland) (Con) Johnson, Daniel (Edinburgh Southern) (Lab) Halcro Johnston, Jamie (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Kerr, Liam (North East Scotland) (Con) Kerr, Stephen (Central Scotland) (Con) Leonard, Richard (Central Scotland) (Lab) Lumsden, Douglas (North East Scotland) (Con) Marra, Michael (North East Scotland) (Lab) McCall, Roz (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) McNeill, Pauline (Glasgow) (Lab) Mochan, Carol (South Scotland) (Lab) Mountain, Edward (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Mundell, Oliver (Dumfriesshire) (Con) O’Kane, Paul (West Scotland) (Lab) [Proxy vote cast by Michael Marra] Ross, Douglas (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Rowley, Alex (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab) Russell, Davy (Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse) (Lab) Sarwar, Anas (Glasgow) (Lab) Simpson, Graham (Central Scotland) (Reform) Smith, Liz (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Stewart, Alexander (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Sweeney, Paul (Glasgow) (Lab) Villalba, Mercedes (North East Scotland) (Lab) Wells, Annie (Glasgow) (Con) White, Tess (North East Scotland) (Con) Whitfield, Martin (South Scotland) (Lab) Whittle, Brian (South Scotland) (Con) The Presiding Officer: The result of the division on amendment S6M-18780.3, in the name of Shirley-Anne Somerville, is: For 72, Against 45, Abstentions 0.”
“So I welcome public ownership, but it must be an equal and inclusive public ownership; it must be a transparent and accountable public ownership; and it must be a comprehensive public ownership. Let us have public ownership built on the timeless principles and the enduring ethical practice of popular, democratic and—I would argue—socialist ownership and control. 16:15”
“Finally, there is something else that the cabinet secretary also regards as an operational matter for ScotRail, which we have debated before but which I must raise again. The big cuts in ticket office opening hours are taking place in almost 100 out of the 143 staffed stations across Scotland. A former First Minister used to try to tell me that this was “modernisation”. The cabinet secretary now tells me that those cuts are being done in the name of “front-line customer service improvements”, but I say that that is a fraud on the travelling public, because the cabinet secretary knows—as the many representative groups that have opposed that change know—that the removal of staff from railway station ticket offices will not simply deter passengers but will deny many passengers access to public transport altogether.”
“In recent weeks, I have also raised with the cabinet secretary the outsourcing of ScotRail customer experience services to Teleperformance, which is a company that promotes the offshoring of its contracts to its South African subsidiary, and a company that is also anti-trade union. The cabinet secretary tells me that that is an operational decision for ScotRail Trains Ltd, but I ask her in Parliament this afternoon, does she care so little for those workers in Scotland who currently provide that service? What about their upskilling? Where is the Government’s fair work first commitment to those workers? Has it just melted? Is it optional? The cabinet secretary should step in, halt that threatened injustice and bring that service and those jobs back in house to benefit both workers and passengers.”
“However, I hope that the Government will reject the old ways of procurement, where we end up with our trains being owned by private capital and leased through rolling-stock companies, and an oligopoly of private profiteering corporations such as Angel Trains, Porterbrook and Eversholt Rail, which are owned and controlled from Australia, Canada, Germany, France and Hong Kong, which is where all the profits go as well. I hope that the Cabinet Secretary for Transport will instead issue green bonds—an idea that was backed in a report by ASLEF that was launched in the Parliament this year—as a progressive alternative to extractive capitalism, as a public financing model in place of a private financing model.”
“He should be making those representations to his UK Labour Government colleagues. Richard Leonard: Well, let me turn to cuts to the rail systems alliance Scotland budget in control period 7, which have led directly to redundancies and job cuts at Babcock Rail in Scotland over the past year and are compromising safety-critical work. Those cuts must be reversed. Last Friday, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport announced the purchase of 69 new trains for the ScotRail network—a welcome and long-overdue announcement.”
“However, I am bound to say that I never understood why, for a whole year, the Scottish Government maintained that it was only existing, undeserving and—worse yet— middle-class passengers on above-average earnings who gained from the scrapping of peak fares. I never understood that. A policy of peak fares is a tax on all workers travelling to and from their work, who are, by my definition, the working class. That reawakening by the Government is welcome, but it must go further. Cuts to British Transport Police’s operations in Scotland remain a very real and present threat, and are at the forefront of the minds of front-line workers who are dealing with antisocial behaviour, including assaults in our stations and on our trains. Fiona Hyslop: I share the member’s concerns. Those cuts have not come from the Scottish side of the arrangement.”
“I applaud, too, the promotion of the Minister for Transport to the rank of cabinet secretary, and the appointment of the general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress to the board of publicly owned Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd, although I have to remind people on a regular basis what Tony Benn, whose centenary we celebrate this year, used to say: “nationalisation plus Lord Robens does not add up to socialism.” Of course, there is also widespread agreement on the Scottish Government’s recent conversion to the scrapping of peak rail fares once and for all, which represents, in my view, another victory for the campaign that was led first and foremost by the railway trade unions.”
“I declare an interest as the convener of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Scottish parliamentary group. I will begin with some common ground and some consensus with the Government. In this session of the Parliament, we have seen the removal of Abellio and Serco, and so the removal of foreign and private ownership from Scotland’s train operations. They have been replaced by the reintroduction of public ownership of both ScotRail and the Caledonian sleeper. That is a victory, not least for the RMT and the other rail unions, which have never stopped in their campaign, inside and outside the Parliament, for the return of our railways to public ownership.”
“Time after time, the audits uncovered fundamental weaknesses in financial controls, where expenses claims were paid out with missing or non-itemised receipts. At one point at the start of 2023, unbelievably, the limit per head for spend on these “business entertaining costs”, including meals and alcohol, was done away with completely.”
“And as we gathered evidence over the course of a year, we uncovered a catalogue of failures by WICS, by its former chief executive, by its board and by the Scottish Government. All of them—all of them—failed to meet the core minimum standards that are required of them. And by their action, and by their inaction—conscious choices both—they all contributed to an extraordinary and flagrant misuse of public funds. Significant sums of public money—our money, the people’s money—were splashed out on expensive training courses for senior staff, on unauthorised Amazon gift vouchers to all staff, and on excessive and unreceipted hospitality claims, or “business entertaining costs”, racked up by the most powerful staff in the organisation.”
“Being the convener of the Public Audit Committee is a privilege, and it is one which I will never take for granted. So I am grateful to be opening this afternoon’s debate on the committee’s findings, on our conclusions, from our extensive scrutiny of the Auditor General’s two section 22 reports following his annual audits of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland between 2022 and 2024. At the very start, let me put on record the thanks of the committee, past and present, to the clerks, past and present, and to the entire support team for the hard work that has gone into the production of this report. What we have exposed is an extreme example, in the words of the Auditor General, of governance and financial issues falling “far short of what is expected of a public body”.”
“I welcome this week’s move, and I welcome public ownership, but we must have public ownership that is equal and inclusive, is transparent and accountable and is comprehensive and democratic—public ownership of our railways that is of the people, by the people, for the people. 13:07”