Meeting of the Parliament 27 May 2026 [Draft]
I am humbled and proud to be here to serve the residents of North East Scotland. I thank my helpers, family and friends, and the people on the doorsteps who remember the good days of Mike Rumbles, Nicol Stephen, Alison McInnes and—certainly—Robert and Malcolm.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats are back in North East Scotland. I can hardly believe that I have the ability to be there alongside the residents, to work for them, and to work with their businesses, educational institutions, industry and third sector.
One topic that, more than anything, makes me want to help people as fast as possible to have better and fairer lives is the one that we are debating today: childcare. Colleagues are all aware that the United Kingdom has the highest childcare costs in Europe. That is one reason why our economy is not progressing in the way that it should be. When parents have to stop working, reduce their hours or take a step back in their careers, that is not right. It is not right that they are only able to work at certain hours and times and must fit childcare around the hours that their jobs demand. Many parents wait three years between having children in order to afford the childcare. Some do night shifts and weekends shifts, and take turns to cover their childcare. Some have to move closer to their relatives or make their relatives move closer to them.
When the SNP manifesto landed, I was surprised that there was a promise of free childcare and support for childcare for children from nine months onward. Maybe I was a bit delighted, because it is something that I had wanted to see for a long time. However, I also wondered why it took the SNP so long to see the cost of childcare as a Munro in the achievement of a fairer society and in helping to grow our economy. Colleagues, the SNP has had 19 years in government. The babies who were born when the SNP arrived in power can have babies of their own now.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats’ goals do not seem as fancy and affordable as that. That is because we budgeted the cost of our manifesto promises. In my ward, the average cost of childcare from 8 am to 5 pm, five days a week—outside the 1,140 hours—is around £1,750, so I question the budget that has been tabled to cover that childcare from the age of nine months.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats know that it is nearly impossible to deliver free breakfast clubs in a rural region. Any members who have worked in a rural council will know that. We know that help with childcare needs to be serious and fair and must help parents to work or to go back to work.
As a councillor in one of the most underfunded council areas, I know that decisions that we make here in Holyrood cascade down to local government, but it is unfair for underfunded councils to have to meet the costs of delivering those decisions, which increases the risk—depending on where in Scotland people live—of already overstretched localities having to find savings elsewhere.
Scottish Liberal Democrats recognise that such promises must be followed by the funding to deliver them, and we will fight for all hard-working families and their support networks, which include grandparents, friends and nurseries, to be able—finally—to achieve their choice in life and to feel that they are treated with fairness and equality.