Meeting of the Parliament 30 October 2025 [Draft]
I have not done it before. As I hope that I explained in my preamble, this is a different situation because we are dealing with a member’s bill, the decision on which is down to the choices of individual members. This is not a vote on which we are being whipped by our parties, which is an almost unique circumstance. I cannot think of any other occasion during this session of Parliament when none of us has been whipped—my party allowed its members a free vote on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, but other parties did not. I think that it makes a difference when we are not instructed how to vote as groups of Scottish National Party, Green, Labour, Liberal Democrat or Conservative members, but each of us is making our own decision about how we vote.
Some of my colleagues who voted against the bill at stage 1 might vote for the financial resolution tonight, and I will respect that view. I simply took exception to Rona Mackay saying that all of us who are going to oppose the financial resolution tonight are doing it to try to circumvent the bill process. I am not doing that. I have lodged an amendment to Liam McArthur’s bill, and I am engaged in that process, but I personally believe that it would not be right to vote against it at stage 1 and then vote for the financial resolution.