The Scotsman Politics: FMQs Review Thursday November 30 2023

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's video bulletin

00:10 wrapping up First Minister's questions.

00:13 My name's Dale Miller, I'm Head of News at the Scotsman

00:16 and I'm joined by our political editor, Alistair Grant.

00:19 Alistair, just as FMQs was coming to an end,

00:23 we heard some news, Alistair Darling has passed away

00:26 at age 70, can you tell us a little bit about it?

00:30 - Yeah, so this obviously just broke right at the end

00:32 of First Minister's questions in Holyrood.

00:35 Alistair Darling, obviously the former Chancellor,

00:37 a huge political figure,

00:39 served under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown,

00:41 I think 13 years in cabinet in total.

00:44 Also the chair of the Better Together campaign

00:47 during the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum.

00:51 So a really massive political figure

00:53 and there'll be a lot of tributes, I think,

00:55 being paid today from across the political spectrum

00:58 to Alistair Darling.

00:59 And I think you could see actually,

01:01 just as we were leaving the chamber,

01:02 some of the Labour MSPs,

01:04 some of the kind of senior Labour figures

01:06 looking quite shocked and upset by the news,

01:08 understandably.

01:09 So I fully expect Anna Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader,

01:12 to say something later on if he hasn't already

01:15 while we're doing this video.

01:17 And I expect Humza Yousaf, the First Minister,

01:19 who I think has actually tweeted about this

01:21 on social media already.

01:22 But as I say, tributes will be paid

01:24 from across the political spectrum.

01:26 Really someone that's shaped politics across the UK

01:29 in the last couple of decades.

01:30 - Yeah, look, a couple of other key Labour figures

01:35 here in Scotland, Kezia Dugdale tweeting as well.

01:38 There will be a lot of tributes paid throughout today.

01:41 Please read all the latest about what people had to say

01:44 about Alistair Darling at scotsman.com.

01:47 Alistair FMQs, it wasn't Humza Yousaf,

01:50 he's in Dubai for COP26,

01:52 but Shona Robison copped it, so to speak,

01:55 from the opposition.

01:56 Just talk us about what the main lines of attack

01:58 were today.

02:00 - Yeah, so this is probably week,

02:01 I think it's week three of Michael Matheson,

02:04 the beleaguered health secretary,

02:05 being the focus of First Minister's questions.

02:08 So today, the Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross,

02:11 raising Michael Matheson,

02:12 raising that 11,000 pound iPad bill,

02:15 essentially going in on a question

02:16 that we've heard in previous weeks.

02:19 Is it, you know, do Scottish government ministers

02:22 always tell the truth?

02:23 This is obviously a reference to Michael Matheson's

02:26 misleading the public, I'd say,

02:30 essentially lying to the press in the days after

02:33 finding out that that 11,000 pound data-roaming bill

02:36 on his parliamentary iPad had been racked up

02:39 by his two teenage sons watching football

02:42 during a family holiday to Morocco

02:44 over the Christmas period last year.

02:47 He, I think, originally the taxpayer was going to foot

02:50 the bill for this 11,000 pound cost,

02:52 but a number of months down the line,

02:56 in the last few weeks,

02:57 Michael Matheson found out about his son's involvement

02:59 and decided to reimburse the full cost.

03:01 He's gonna pay it all himself.

03:03 But in the days after finding out about that,

03:05 he spoke to the media,

03:07 was asked if there was any personal use of his iPad,

03:09 said there wasn't.

03:11 That was obviously turned out to be a misleading statement.

03:14 And there's been calls for Michael Matheson to resign

03:16 or to be sacked by first minister, Humza Yousaf,

03:19 in the aftermath of that.

03:20 Douglas Ross continuing to view this as something

03:23 that they're gonna make traction with

03:25 in first minister's questions.

03:26 And essentially at the end,

03:28 basically saying that Michael Matheson

03:30 has lost the confidence of the country.

03:32 There was a poll out yesterday by Ipsos

03:35 published by STV News,

03:37 which found that a majority of people in Scotland

03:41 think Michael Matheson should resign over this row.

03:44 So Douglas Ross essentially saying,

03:45 we're going into this winter period,

03:46 this very tricky period for the NHS

03:49 and Michael Matheson no longer has the confidence

03:52 of the public.

03:53 And then we had Scottish Labour leader, Anna Sarwar,

03:56 making very similar points,

03:57 but I think more of a focus on those growing

04:00 NHS waiting lists.

04:01 I think he was making the point that waiting lists

04:03 are longer now than they have ever been

04:06 across all sorts of different parts of the NHS.

04:09 Obviously some extremely worrying figures

04:11 that he was bringing up about the number of people

04:13 that have died while on an NHS waiting list.

04:16 And again, essentially pointing to Michael Matheson

04:18 as not being up to the job.

04:20 You know, we've got this very serious situation

04:22 with the NHS and you've got a health secretary

04:25 who the opposition would certainly argue

04:27 is distracted by a row that has nothing to do with this.

04:30 - You can also read a report by our Westminster correspondent

04:35 Alexander Brown as well,

04:37 who was told by a few key SMP figures in Westminster

04:40 that the damage has been done

04:42 and they are concerned about what this could do

04:44 at the ballot box for the general election next year.

04:48 Alistair, just lastly,

04:50 I thought Anna Sarwar landed a decent blow

04:52 around accidental emergency waiting times

04:56 and just the general state of the health system as well.

04:59 - I think he did.

05:00 I mean, it's an issue that Scottish Labour go on

05:02 quite frequently in First Minister's questions.

05:04 They're quite strong on health stuff.

05:06 It's what they view as a weakness of the Scottish government

05:09 and there's no doubting that some of those waiting lists

05:11 across the NHS are extremely concerning

05:14 and they've been kind of hitting the headlines now

05:16 pretty much every single week,

05:18 something there's a new update on the state

05:21 of the kind of NHS waiting lists.

05:23 It's something that they get hammered with a lot

05:26 and I think it just ties into this perception

05:27 that we're approaching these crucial winter months.

05:31 The NHS is creaking at the seams

05:33 and we've got a health secretary

05:34 who is arguably distracted with, as I say,

05:36 a row that has very little to do with this

05:38 and I think Shona Robison, as you say,

05:41 the deputy first minister who is standing in

05:42 for Humza Yousaf today,

05:44 I don't think it was a very impressive performance from her.

05:47 I think it was quite flat

05:48 and I think she kind of struggled to really kind of

05:51 get much enthusiasm from the SNP benches behind her.

05:54 But yeah, she was essentially saying

05:57 that these problems exist across the UK.

05:59 The health service in England,

06:01 the health service in Wales are also struggling

06:04 and that is true, but we're obviously at,

06:06 First Minister's questions in Holyrood,

06:08 we're asking questions about Scotland,

06:10 the opposition wants to know about

06:12 what the Scottish government is doing.

06:13 So I think this is something that won't go away

06:16 and we see that, you look at last year,

06:19 the year before, these stories about the NHS

06:22 during the winter months,

06:24 expect lots more of it in the weeks ahead.

06:27 - You can read all the latest at scotsman.com.

06:30 We're running a blog throughout today,

06:31 including some of the evidence given by

06:34 former UK health secretary, Matt Hancock.

06:37 So you can catch up on the full wrap of what was discussed

06:40 and all the latest tributes as we've discussed

06:43 to Alistair Darling.

06:45 Thanks very much for joining us today.

06:47 (upbeat music)

06:51 (upbeat music)

06:54 you

Category

Transcript

Recommended