Meeting of the Parliament 03 November 2022
On behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, I echo the First Minister’s congratulations to her newest minister, Elena Whitham. I also commend the First Minister for displaying her customary good humour and collegiate warmth in the text of her letter to the outgoing minister, Ash Regan. The letter was short, but I am not sure that it was sweet, so it is no wonder that ministerial resignations are a rare event in her Government.
On behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, I join the First Minister in congratulating Elena Whitham on her new role. Despite a long period in Canada, she is deeply rooted in the community that she represents. The new Minister for Community Safety served as a Scottish Women’s Aid worker in Ayrshire for more than a decade, so she is experienced in the sensitive and important issues relating to her new role.
Like the First Minister, I also note that in the 1995 referendum, Ms Whitham was a campaigner in favour of an independent Quebec, so can I wish her the same success in any similar future referendum, should it ever arise.
I also pay tribute to Ash Regan. It is not common for Scottish National Party MSPs to think independently of the First Minister, let alone to resign from her Government, so I thank her for her integrity, her principled honesty and, of course, her bravery.
There is an irony in a Minister for Community Safety resigning on an issue that is, ostensibly, one of community safety. She took a principled stand—something that, sadly, we do not see enough of in public life today. There is also irony in that the minister who sought to ban fireworks went out with a bang the week before Guy Fawkes night. She lit the First Minister’s blue touchpaper but, judging by her press conference this week, she is clearly not going to retire to a safe distance.
I also take the opportunity to commiserate with those bright, aspiring and ambitious SNP back benchers who are still hoping to have their first ride in a ministerial limousine—Christine Grahame, Paul McLennan, Kenny Gibson, Stuart McMillan, John Mason and Michelle Thomson, among others. I am sure that their time will come. Indeed, it might come sooner than they think; it might come as soon as stage 3 of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill later this month, when the First Minister might receive a further round of ministerial resignations.
In closing on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, I wish Elena Whitham well. It is an important position that she takes on for the communities that we represent, so we wish her well in it.