Meeting of the Parliament 10 June 2026 [Draft]
I am glad that the Labour Party has secured a debate on restoring public trust in Scottish politics, because, quite clearly, the public have very little trust in our political institutions. However, that did not begin and does not end with Peter Murrell’s crimes against the SNP. We have already talked this afternoon about the case of Peter Mandelson and the allegations against Colin Smyth. Anas Sarwar has already talked about the arc of history of this Parliament, and we could go back further and talk about Mike Watson, a member of this Parliament who was convicted of criminal offences. We could also talk about the mysterious disappearance of Foysol Choudhury—the purging of Foysol Choudhury, as some members have suggested.
If we want to talk about the damage that has been done to our politics in a UK context, we could mention Labour Together, an institution with strong links to the Prime Minister that was caught spying on journalists and did not declare substantial amounts of money that it had received in donations. We could also look to the Conservative Party, which for at least a decade was awash with Russian money that linked right back to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, or we could talk about Nigel Farage and his £5 million donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire. [Interruption.]