Meeting of the Parliament 07 May 2025
I am running out of time, so I ask my colleague to forgive me.
The Scottish Government has had 18 years to do that. Finally, it is waking up to the fact that its policies might be harming growth.
Yesterday, we heard from the First Minister about promoting international trade, which is very welcome. Remarkably, however, we heard nothing about yesterday’s real big news, which was the announcement that there is to be a free trade agreement between India and the United Kingdom. The Scotch Whisky Association described that as
“a once in a generation deal”.
I know that there are issues with some of the detail, but the previous UK Conservative Government worked hard to bring that together and it is good to see it being completed. It means that, for India, which is potentially the world’s largest whisky market, we will see a halving of the current 150 per cent tariff on Scotch whisky to 75 per cent, with a staged reduction down to 40 per cent over 10 years. That will be transformational for the industry, with the potential to increase income from Scotch whisky exports by £1 billion over five years and create 1,200 jobs across the UK.
That is tremendous news, so why have we heard nothing about it from the Scottish Government? Perhaps the reason is that it is being delivered only as a consequence of Brexit and our ability to make such agreements on our own outwith the EU. However, the First Minister would rather moan about Brexit than celebrate the opportunities that it brings for Scottish business.
What the Scottish Government should be delivering to help to promote growth is clear. It should address the overtaxation of business, address the excessive regulation, provide the support for skills and apprenticeship that businesses need and ensure that the infrastructure is there—with roads such as the A9 and rail and ferry networks—to support the economy. The programme for government is a missed opportunity for Scottish business. What we need to see is growth, but that is not what the Government is delivering. That is the point of our amendment.
I am very happy to move amendment S6M-17437.4, to leave out from first “the actions” to end and insert:
“that all good Scottish Government outcomes, including supporting household incomes, reducing poverty, creating wealth and funding public services, depend on delivering stronger economic growth; regrets that, despite the overriding importance of stronger economic growth, the Programme for Government 2025-26 fails to contain the policies needed to deliver it, and instead signals the continuation of the UK’s harshest tax regime on households and businesses, and fails to commit to the actions needed to deliver a growth-promoting regulatory and planning environment, and calls on the Scottish Government to adopt the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party’s common-sense proposals to grow the economy, including by reducing taxes on individuals and businesses and by improving the skills of the workforce.”
15:13Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.