Graham Leadbitter, SNP's candidate for Westminster in Nairn

Highland News & Media

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00:00It's a fantastic local business with a fantastic tradition dating back many decades and we've

00:17got a highly skilled workforce, a big local employer and it's really important as a candidate

00:24and as local politicians that we find out about these businesses and understand what

00:29they do in order to provide the best support possible for them.

00:33Talking about local businesses, what will you do for local business in the end year?

00:41I think the first priority of any SNP MP is to go to Westminster and be a voice for Scotland

00:48on the biggest issues affecting their communities. For places like Moray, West Nairn and Strathspey,

00:56infrastructure investment is really important and that means that we need to get down there

01:01and ensure that the budgets that we need. Fundamentally the UK Government controls most

01:08of the budget and we need to make sure that we're getting that fair share, but also making

01:14the point that if we had full control of our finances as an independent country, then

01:19we would be able to take those decisions right now.

01:21So don't you think that you again, and I'm pretty sure this comes first, would be getting

01:28your way off recovery from a single crisis or what's the pandemic left?

01:35No, not at all. You have to do both at the same time. SNP activists, members, there are

01:42tens of thousands of us across Scotland who are every single day making a case for independence,

01:47but it doesn't mean that we don't get on with the day job at the same time. There is a job

01:51of work to be done to tackle the cost of living, to tackle energy prices. Energy regulation

01:56is a major issue here where we pay some of the highest energy prices in the UK. These

02:01are issues that affect households and businesses alike and these are key issues that SNP MPs

02:09all need to take to Westminster. Drew Hendry has previously represented this area until

02:16the boundary changes for this election and he's been leading the charge on issues like

02:21energy pricing and regulation. He has my 100% support and that is certainly a battle we

02:29want to take forward as well for this constituency.

02:32We're talking about infrastructure. We're in there and of course one of the biggest

02:36problems for infrastructure is the dualling of the main communities and the nearby transport

02:40slots. What will you be doing to transition that?

02:44There's no doubting that the E96 is a challenge for us. We do need to get it dualled. Fortunately,

02:52we're making progress on the nearby pass section. The made orders are complete. There's been

02:57no objections to them and that was confirmed by the Transport Secretary a couple of weeks

03:02ago. There is progress there. The land has been acquired and we'll start doing that work

03:08on the ground soon. There is much more that we need to do. Again, it's come back to budgets

03:13that we need to lobby as hard as we possibly can to make sure we get a fair share of capital

03:18budgets. Capital budgets is something that is fundamentally controlled by Westminster.

03:23Budgets for roads, hospitals, schools, housing, all of these are major issues that we need

03:30to tackle, but we need to hold whichever UK government is in place to account.

03:36On this question this morning, we got the news that the Government of Scotland set down

03:40SNP MPs. What's your thoughts about this announcement?

03:45Well, he's certainly managed to make a bit of a pig's ear of his campaigning in the last

03:52couple of weeks and it's not a great surprise that it's come to this. I think he has thrown

03:59a colleague under the bus, a colleague who is recovering from illness, who was a well-respected

04:06MP. That's pretty unforgivable and it clearly was unforgivable for his party. But where

04:13that leaves the Conservative campaign is beyond me. How can they be a credible force in Scotland

04:21if they can't even manage to lead a sensible campaign?

04:29Thank you.

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