FMQs - Political Editor Alistair Grant sums up proceeedings - video Dailymotion

The Scotsman

FMQs - Political Editor Alistair Grant sums up proceeedings

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00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show.

00:09 We're here to do a roundup of First Minister's questions.

00:13 I'm Dale Miller, I'm Head of News at the Scotsman.

00:15 I'm joined by our political editor, Alistair Grant.

00:19 Alistair, at least some of FMQs was entertaining,

00:24 but police cuts, which is pretty serious business,

00:26 led things off.

00:28 - Yeah, so both the Conservatives and Labour

00:31 went in on police cuts, issues around police, crime.

00:35 It's just one of those days where they both

00:37 have to go in on the exact same topic.

00:39 I think Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader,

00:41 maybe had a bit more impact in terms of what he was saying,

00:43 just some of the language around it.

00:45 Very much drawing attention to fears

00:47 around officer numbers in Scotland,

00:49 the number of officers out on the beat,

00:52 police station closures,

00:53 issues that are quite Tory issues,

00:57 stuff they've brought up before in FMQs.

01:00 It's ground they're quite comfortable on.

01:02 And also bringing up that pilot that's going on

01:05 in the North East of Scotland,

01:06 where the police have essentially said

01:07 they won't investigate some crimes anymore.

01:10 So crimes where there's no immediate threats,

01:12 where there's no prospect of them,

01:15 where there's no fresh leads.

01:16 And very much saying, I suppose these would be minor crimes,

01:20 but Douglas Ross was trying to get Humza Yousaf

01:22 to identify what crimes the police

01:25 would no longer be investigating.

01:27 And I think there's some quite memorable language

01:29 used by Douglas Ross.

01:30 We accused Humza Yousaf of being a criminal's dream.

01:34 He accused him of being sly, sleeket, secretive.

01:38 And Humza Yousaf very much hitting back at that,

01:41 listing off a bunch of what he would say are facts

01:43 and figures, lines he's very fond of

01:46 whenever justice issues come up

01:48 in First Minister's questions,

01:50 pointing out there's more police officers per head

01:52 in Scotland than there is in Tory-run England

01:56 or Labour-run Wales.

01:57 It's a statistic he brought up repeatedly today, actually.

02:00 I think it was mentioned about five or six times by him.

02:03 And also talking about that general fall

02:05 in crimes in Scotland.

02:07 So very much defending his record there.

02:10 But also accusing Douglas Ross of telling lies

02:13 about the police service.

02:14 Now, if you follow parliamentary politics

02:17 in Hollywood or Westminster,

02:19 you'll know that accusing an opposition member

02:21 of lying is a big no.

02:22 It's not accepted.

02:24 You're just not meant to do it.

02:26 So the Presiding Officer, Alison Johnson,

02:28 stepping in there and asking Humza Yousaf to apologise.

02:31 We had a moment that very much felt

02:32 like being back at school.

02:34 It felt a little bit childish.

02:36 Humza Yousaf standing up repeatedly

02:38 and sort of apologising,

02:39 but putting in a little dig at the end at the Tories,

02:42 making it clear that he wasn't really sorry.

02:46 And Alison Johnson repeatedly asking him to do it again

02:48 and basically apologise better.

02:50 It all felt a bit childish, to be honest.

02:53 So I know Douglas Ross,

02:55 despite having three or four or five jobs,

02:57 I've lost count, Presiding Officer,

02:58 was down at the Conservative Party conference this week,

03:02 or as others have rightly dubbed it,

03:03 the conspiracy party conference.

03:06 His post truth, his lies about the police service

03:10 simply will not wash here in Scotland, Presiding Officer.

03:15 (audience applauding)

03:21 - First Minister, as all members are aware,

03:24 it is wholly inappropriate to suggest

03:26 that another member of this Parliament has lied.

03:28 And I would be grateful, First Minister,

03:30 if you might apologise.

03:32 - I'm happy to call it a deliberate inaccuracy,

03:35 Presiding Officer, because that's clearly what it is.

03:38 - First Minister, I must ask that you apologise, please.

03:42 - Happy to apologise to anybody who's been offended

03:45 by the post truths that have come from the Conservative Party

03:47 and anyone that has been offended by my remarks,

03:50 Presiding Officer.

03:51 - First Minister, I would ask that you apologise

03:53 to myself and to this chamber.

03:55 - I'm happy to apologise to the chamber

03:57 for any offence, Cosplaying Officer.

03:59 (audience laughing)

04:02 - I think three times she asked him

04:04 and she sort of looked a bit dissatisfied

04:06 even after the third answer as well.

04:09 - Yeah, it felt like some kind of cheeky kid

04:11 standing up in a classroom

04:12 and just not being willing to kind of play ball in a way.

04:16 So moments like that,

04:18 probably not the faintest moments in Hollywood.

04:20 - And Alastair, the police cuts discussion

04:23 comes on the back of the Scottish Police Federation

04:26 earlier this week as well,

04:27 warning that people are gonna die if the cuts go ahead,

04:32 which is up to 600 officers by April,

04:36 which is certainly scary language.

04:39 Can you talk to us a little bit about,

04:41 on the other side of the country,

04:42 we've got the Rutherglen election happening

04:45 and that had some sort of impact to that?

04:47 - Yes, so the Holyrood chamber was actually a lot quieter

04:50 than it normally is.

04:51 So there's a lot of seats missing on the SNP side,

04:53 a lot of seats empty on the Labour side as well.

04:56 Because of this by-election happening today,

04:58 I'm sure people watching this will be aware of it.

05:01 Rutherglen and Hamilton West,

05:02 probably the most important by-election in Scotland

05:05 for decades, certainly since maybe Glasgow East in 1998.

05:09 Very much a two-way fight between the SNP and Labour.

05:14 The expectation is, I think among political insiders,

05:17 is that Labour will win it.

05:18 The question is just what their majority is.

05:21 But this is obviously the first electoral test

05:23 that Hamza Yousaf has faced in his time as First Minister.

05:26 So it'll be an important one for him.

05:28 I think the SNP behind the scenes

05:30 are probably prepared to lose it,

05:31 but it's how they lose it I think will be important.

05:33 And what that says about the kind of narrative

05:36 that's building in Scotland.

05:37 There's this narrative across the UK

05:40 that Labour have momentum, that they're on the up.

05:43 It's something that's very important to them,

05:44 going into that expected general election next year.

05:48 So they will want to have,

05:50 they won't want to win by the skin of their teeth.

05:51 They'll want to win by a fair amount.

05:54 They'll want there to be a fair swing to Labour,

05:56 'cause they'll want to demonstrate

05:57 that they're back in action in Scotland.

05:59 And I think if they lose, or they just win by,

06:02 as I say, just a slight fraction,

06:04 that whole narrative that they are relying on

06:06 will be cast in some doubt.

06:09 - Alistair, do you get the feeling, before we wrap up,

06:12 that the loser is gonna potentially use turnout

06:16 as an issue, because we know it's a,

06:18 you don't have to vote in it.

06:19 Turnout might be low, it's a by-election.

06:21 Do you think the loser will focus

06:24 on things like that ultimately?

06:26 - I think that's probably true to some degree.

06:30 I think turnout in by-elections is usually lower

06:33 than you'd expect in, for example, a general election.

06:35 I think the expectation is for this,

06:36 that turnout will be low.

06:38 I think the SNP might be worried about that

06:40 if you've got dissatisfied supporters

06:43 who just simply won't turn out in the day.

06:45 They might not vote Labour,

06:46 but they certainly won't come out and vote SNP.

06:49 They will be concerned about that.

06:50 And yeah, those issues will come into play.

06:52 And I think actually if turnout is low,

06:54 that also makes it difficult to kind of extrapolate

06:58 any national trends from a by-election.

07:00 By-elections can be unusual,

07:02 but they are a way to take the temperature

07:03 of how things are going,

07:05 particularly in a by-election like this,

07:07 which has just become such a kind of political hot topic

07:10 in the last few months.

07:12 And so, yeah, turnout will definitely be one to watch.

07:15 - Our political correspondent, Rachel Armour,

07:18 is at the count, which will happen overnight.

07:21 We'd expect the result sometime around one o'clock,

07:24 potentially on Friday morning.

07:26 You'll be able to get all the latest at scotsman.com.

07:29 And please go ahead and sign up

07:31 to our politics newsletter as well.

07:33 That will be delivered in October 6th morning

07:35 with a bit of a breakdown

07:37 about the highlights from the count.

07:38 So look out for that one.

07:41 Alistair, thanks very much for joining us.

07:43 - Thanks.

07:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]

FMQs - Political Editor Alistair Grant sums up proceeedings

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