Meeting of the Parliament 25 November 2025
I do, and I have five minutes. I say to Christine Grahame that all will become very clear at the end of my five minutes. However, it will take longer to get there if we have such spurious points of order. [Interruption.]
The point is that there are serious questions about this—now-emergency—legislation that the Parliament has agreed to consider. I voted against that, but I respect the Parliament, which wants to rush it through. We need answers to those serious questions ahead of stages 2 and 3, and ahead of stage 1 tomorrow.
Given that we are looking at the timetabling of stages 1, 2 and 3, I am making the point, in opposing the timetabling motion, that we should have more time, because, if the minister cannot answer basic questions today, will he be able to answer them tomorrow, at stage 1? Will we get answers when we are voting at stage 2 or stage 3? That is why it is important to oppose the timetabling motion.
I go back to the point that I was making before Christine Grahame tried her point of order: what did the Government know in that period between August and November? Let us be very clear, because Scottish National Party members have been trying to shut us down when we make those points from these benches. The minister would not even respond to the debate.
Members should imagine the shoe being on the other foot. They should just picture that. If the United Kingdom Government at Westminster made an error that cost hundreds of millions of pounds, what would the members on the middle benches be saying about that? They would be up in arms and demanding answers. They would be calling on the minister to give those answers.
John Mason [Made a request to intervene.]