Meeting of the Parliament 21 May 2026 [Draft]
I thank members for their contributions, although there was a varying nature to the speeches that we heard today, and I will reflect that in what I say.
I welcome Thomas Kerr to his place and congratulate him on his maiden speech, which he made on an auspicious occasion. However, I will make an elementary point to him. He is making his maiden speech after an election in which Reform got 15.8 per cent of the vote and the SNP got 38.2 per cent of the vote, having campaigned vigorously around the country. It is, therefore, quite a stretch to argue that, somehow, the SNP is not in a position to govern or has not earned the right to govern, when we have achieved a share of the vote that is more than double that which was achieved by Reform. We will work our way through the implications of arithmetic during the course of this parliamentary session in the usual fashion.
I say to Meghan Gallacher that, in the past, the speech that she gave would normally have been given by none other than Jackson Carlaw. I do not say this disrespectfully, but he was an awful lot funnier when he turned his mind to it. However, that gives me the opportunity to make this point. Although I am delighted that Kirsten Oswald won in Eastwood, I pay tribute to Jackson Carlaw who was an outstanding parliamentarian who was a credit to the Conservative Party in Scotland and, in my humble opinion, was a really good leader of that party—that is not designed to insult Ms Gallacher’s next-door neighbour. I take this opportunity to express my warmest wishes to Jackson Carlaw and to note his outstanding service in the Scottish Parliament.
Meghan Gallacher raised a substantive issue about Jamie Hepburn. In my view, Jamie Hepburn addressed the issues that were at stake with Douglas Ross. He did that properly. He then stood for election and the people of Cumbernauld and Kilsyth sent him here with 50.8 per cent of the vote. I know from all his interactions with political parties that he is more than capable of being the Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans and doing exactly what I need him to do, which is to work with others across the chamber.
I pay tribute to Lorna Slater, who was very generous in her tribute to Jenni Minto—a tribute that I associate myself strongly with. She invited us to be bold in government, and that is exactly what the Government will do in the next parliamentary session.
In his very good speech, Neil Bibby made an important point when he mentioned John Smith’s comment about the opportunity to serve. That is what runs through all my contribution to public service. It has always been what I have wanted to do, so I understand the sense of disappointment that colleagues will feel who, after the election, are not in a position to hold ministerial office.
However, a substantive point that Neil Bibby made in his contribution resonates with what Willie Rennie has just said: we are a Parliament of minorities. Willie Rennie said that he and his colleagues were desperate to get things done. I am also desperate to get things done, so there is undoubtedly space for us to achieve common purpose.
I very much welcomed what Mr Sarwar said in both of his contributions in Parliament on Tuesday, in which he indicated the challenges that we now face in the aftermath of the election. Those are about how we work together to address the very serious issues that Mr Rennie raised about how people feel in our communities. That is what I want to lead our Government to do—to ensure that we address the issues facing the people whom I spoke to during the election, who are truly hurting just now because of the financial challenges that they face and the difficulties that exist in our society. Some of those difficulties are a product of domestic circumstances and some are a product of events that are far away from us but have implications for us. However, I am certain that the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, through the exercise of self-government, gives us a better chance of addressing the issues that the public are concerned about.
As I ask for parliamentary support for my ministerial team, I give the commitment to all parties that I gave to Parliament on Tuesday: my Government will seek to work collaboratively with others. I have made clear my position on the basis on which that collaboration should be taken forward. We will succeed only if we work together in a spirit of collaboration, and my ministerial team is committed to doing exactly that.