Meeting of the Parliament 02 September 2025
He is very noisy when he is sat down—he has a big mouth when he is sat down.
The only way that any of us will win back public trust and earn the right to represent people is if we do things differently. In the eight months ahead, the Parliament has the opportunity to do that, rather than fritter away endless time on debates that achieve nothing except for letting MSPs feel good about themselves. We need to use that time to kick-start Scotland’s economy and get it growing again. We must make that a top priority. The focus of the Parliament should be on the creation of jobs and the expansion of business. We have to create the conditions for Scotland’s economic renewal, repair the relationship between Parliament and business, and nurture an environment in which more people have the confidence to start a business. More of the same from John Swinney is just not an option.
Members must look at where we are now. Four out of every five small and medium-sized enterprises in Scotland believe that their very survival is at risk over the next 12 months. Just one in 10 Scottish firms thinks that the Scottish Government understands the business environment. A report from the Confederation of British Industry and the Fraser of Allander Institute found that the Scottish economy is struggling to keep pace with the UK-wide economy on almost every metric.
John Swinney knows only how to squeeze more out of workers and businesses while imposing more rules that stifle innovation and expansion. For more than 18 years of SNP rule, our economy has been in decline. The business community feels overlooked or ignored. Workers do not get new opportunities from the SNP—just higher bills. The entire SNP economic model is at breaking point. Our country cannot afford to keep spending so much on a huge and unreformed public sector and an ever-growing benefits bill.
It is unsustainable to always take more and spend more. It is unfair to expect people to continually forfeit more of their own hard-earned money just to watch Holyrood politicians throw it down the drain. More of the same reckless agenda from John Swinney risks the solvency of Scotland. The SNP needs to abandon the folly of its economics, which prioritise abstract and woke thinking—does anyone really know what the wellbeing economy actually is?
The only way to change is to put our focus instead on Scotland’s economic renewal. Opportunity and aspiration, productivity and profit—that is where my party stands. We are going to reconnect with the astute values of mainstream Scotland.