Meeting of the Parliament 10 September 2025
Sorry—with four minutes, I cannot give more time away.
While bins go unemptied, potholes appear and Glaswegians are living on the streets, the SNP council quietly gives massive pay-outs to department officials.
The SNP Government talks about providing a welcome, but it does not back up that welcome with the financial decisions and long-term support that are needed to turn it from just words into action. It is only Labour that has taken steps to fix the problem. Since the Labour Government was elected in the UK, the number of asylum decisions has doubled and the backlog has fallen by 24 per cent in just 12 months. A new independent body has been announced to speed up asylum appeals and ease pressure on the courts. Such delivery and leadership were completely absent from any Conservative Government during the past 14 years, and absent from any contribution that I have heard from members on the Conservative benches.
Here in Scotland, after 18 years of SNP failure, a Labour Government would prioritise restoring our roads, hospitals, schools and communities. Further, it would ensure that it served all Scots—new and old—well, rather than using them as a rhetorical device, only to forget them when their political capital runs out.
We must do better. Scottish Labour will work with everyone who is committed to delivering for our communities, and we will never allow division or dangerous political point scoring to detract from the real work that is needed in that area.
I move amendment S6M-18780.2, to leave out from “acknowledges” to end and insert:
“regrets that the previous UK Conservative administration left the asylum system in a state of collapse; recognises the progress made by the UK Labour administration to clear the backlog of asylum claims, and believes that the failure to tackle the challenges facing Scotland’s local authorities, public services and housing system, for which the Scottish Government has devolved responsibility and has received record levels of funding from the UK Labour administration, is the root cause of the housing emergency.”
16:19Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.