Meeting of the Parliament 19 November 2025
I thank Finlay Carson for bringing this important debate to the chamber. Today, we are talking about one overarching issue: the SNP’s neglect of rural Scotland. It is a neglect that is based not on geography, history or economics but on one thing only: constitutional politics. For years, the SNP has systematically and cynically neglected the rural parts of Scotland that do not support independence. Areas such as Dumfries and Galloway, the Scottish Borders and Aberdeenshire have been forgotten about by a Government that values independence-supporting central belt areas and communities more than it values the communities that I represent.
The numbers speak for themselves. In March, Dumfries and Galloway councillors were forced to find £30 million in savings over three years, blaming what they described as an “unprecedented funding gap”. As has been made clear, NHS Dumfries and Galloway is currently trying to find £58 million in savings, otherwise it will be cutting front-line services. I say to the minister that there is no clearer case of the SNP’s neglect of rural areas than the challenges that Dumfries and Galloway Council currently faces. However, the chickens have come home to roost, for the council is now run by a minority SNP administration, which is having to clear up the mess that was created by SNP central Government.
That is the reality on the ground. Rural bus funding has been systematically cut, and the SNP council leader is now begging ministers for additional cash as lifeline supported services face the axe. Rural primary schools have been systematically underfunded, with the closure of some village schools, the loss of headteachers, who have been replaced by pool teachers, and the removal of additional support needs provision entirely from rural schools, which has forced children into larger town-based settings. That includes children in a village who have had to move schools less than three years after their own school was closed.
There is systematic defunding of core services. This year, Dumfries and Galloway’s SNP council is being forced, by the SNP Government, to consider removing funding entirely from the citizens advice bureaux network. That £1 million saving could result in the loss of £15 million in social and economic benefits that are delivered by the services that the citizens advice bureaux provide.
The cuts do not end there. Music tuition is at risk in Dumfriesshire schools, which means that only the privileged few whose parents can afford to pay a private tutor will be able to learn a musical instrument. There have been proposed closures of leisure centres, including Hillview leisure centre in Kelloholm, which will strike another blow to rural residents. It will mean the loss of a space where people can play sports, go to the gym and have community and social gatherings. That is a clear loss to a rural community, and it has been brought about by SNP neglect.
Today, I say to the SNP that enough is enough—it must call a halt to the chronic underfunding of rural public services, and it must stop diverting money elsewhere. The political motivation at the heart of Scotland’s resource allocation has to be brought to an end. Rural health services and rural councils must be properly funded—with a fair funding formula, not the pork-barrel politics of John Swinney’s SNP.
Roads such as the A75 and the A76 need urgent action. The state of disrepair on rural roads has reached crisis levels on the SNP’s watch. My constituents—often elderly ones—are sick and tired of the SNP Government ignoring rural parts of the south of Scotland. They are sick and tired of seeing their services suffer while the SNP pump primes the areas of Scotland where it is buying votes to deliver on its only priority. That kind of SNP pork-barrel politics has to end because, under John Swinney, it is independence at the expense of all else, particularly the rural residents and communities that I represent.