Kate Forbes MSP

Highland News & Media

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes visits Birchwood Croft south of Inverness on the general election campaign trail

Transcript

00:00 How can Highland voters trust the SNP given that the First Minister's throne is backing

00:08 behind someone that many many people, including the Holyrood Committee, believe is fundamentally

00:12 untrustworthy?

00:13 Well, Highland voters can trust the SNP because of the track record and the interest of the

00:21 SNP MPs that represent these areas.

00:25 Drew Henry has done an enormous amount of work across the Highlands in terms of energy

00:31 bills, in terms of delivery charges.

00:33 We have Lucy Beatty who understands rural Scotland, is a crofter herself, and Graham

00:39 Ledbetter who has represented the Moray coast for a number of years.

00:44 So my message to Highland voters is look at your candidates, see what they've already

00:49 delivered for the Highlands, and know that if you send SNP MPs to represent the Highlands,

00:56 they will do just that.

00:58 Drew Henry withdrew his support from you.

01:00 Are you happy to give your support to him in this election?

01:02 I'm more than delighted to give my support to colleagues that I've worked with over the

01:06 last few years and who I know work tirelessly.

01:10 I can absolutely give an account of how hard Drew works across the Highlands and a number

01:17 of different issues like energy bills wouldn't have had the attention that they had if it

01:22 weren't for his strong, loud voice at Westminster.

01:26 What do you see as the fundamental issues for Highland voters this year given that this

01:31 is seen as a change election?

01:33 You have Labour against the Tories, you've got Labour against the SNP and the Tories

01:37 in Scotland, and both the SNP and the Tories have been in power for considerable amounts

01:42 of time.

01:43 But I think there are probably three issues that voters in the Highlands are most concerned

01:47 about, and the first of those is cost of living.

01:50 And the fact that despite energy being generated literally within probably a mile radius of

01:57 where we're speaking, their energy bills have rocketed because of the issues within the

02:03 energy market which is reserved to Westminster.

02:06 I think the other one, speaking on a farm and a croft as we are just now, is what's

02:11 happened to our economy as a result of some of the additional bureaucracy around Brexit.

02:19 You talk to a lot of the small exporters and they will tell you just how difficult it is,

02:24 particularly food and drink, where they're often stuck in a van at the border for too

02:30 long creating huge amounts of loss.

02:34 And the third one is infrastructure.

02:37 And I want to see more investment in our infrastructure.

02:41 That requires capital.

02:43 And Scotland is seeing a significant cut to its capital budget that comes from the UK

02:50 government.

02:51 Keir Starmer has said that he won't turn the spending taps on.

02:54 That's hugely worrying for our overall capital budget which we could spend.

02:59 And if that changes on account of the loud SNP voices at Westminster, my hope is we could

03:05 do a lot more.

03:06 Finally, should John Swinney follow Rishi Sunak's advice and concentrate on education

03:10 rather than the date of the election regarding schools and July 4th?

03:15 Well, clearly my view on the 4th of July election is that probably Tory strategists didn't even

03:22 know when the school holidays started.

03:25 So that's an issue in itself.

03:26 But look, the First Minister is absolutely focused on education.

03:30 He's made it one of his four priorities - economic growth, tackling child poverty, reaching net

03:36 zero and investing in public services including health and education.

03:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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