Live blog: First Minister's Questions - Yousaf expected to be grilled on Michael Matheson expenses scandal
First Minister Humza Yousaf is set to take questions from opposition parties from noon onwards - join us to keep updated with the cut and thrust of the debates.
Live blog: FMQs
Heat pumps
MSPs are now debating the installation of heat pumps.
Fergus Ewing accuses the Green Party of implementing a "half-baked pie in the sky" policy that has actually driven up housing prices.
The Scottish Government is set to ban gas boilers and other direct emissions heating systems in all new homes and non-domestic buildings constructed in Scotland from next year.
Ewing says major house builders have warned they are unable to build as many homes due to the added cost.
More here:
Something must be done
The First Minister says his government has a responsibility to combat the climate crisis.
Yousaf says: "History will judge very poorly climate deniers and climate skeptics in the face of a climate crisis that is harming our planet."
Some reaction from across the political spectrum to today's FMQs:
Co-convener of Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire Green Party, Greg Ingerson:
Tory MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston, tweeting from the chamber (we assume):
NHS Scotland
Scottish Conservative MSP Susan Webber asks about GP services - what is being done to protect it?
Webber asks for an uplift for GP staff, saying staff are "frustrated and demoralised".
Yousaf says the UK Government is giving the Scottish Government "a paltry" £11m towards Scotland's health service.
Labour Paul Sweeney says GPs are "firefighting" in Glasgow.
SNP's Kenneth Gibson tees up a scripted question, asking Yousaf to give his thoughts on the UK Government's Autumn Statement yesterday.
For those unfamilar with FMQs (and of course PMQs down south), backbenchers from the government's ruling party frequently use their time to ask questions that have been pre-agreed with the First Minister's aides.
Humza YousafThe RCN's chief nurse said that the UK's Autumn Statement is short-sighted, that the NHS faces a multi-billion pound deficit. Tories don't want to hear from nurses, they want to distract, deflect, dodge the fact their statement means savage cuts to the NHS.
Israel-Hamas war
Yousaf tells the chamber the four-day 'pause' in Israel's invasion of Gaza is welcome, but says a permanent ceasefire is needed.
It follows the First Minister calling on the UK to officially recognise the state of Palestine.
More on that here:
Grangemouth oil refinery
SNP MSP Michelle Thomson says workers at the Grangemouth oil refiner as "fearful" for their jobs after the owners took action to move the facility to an import site, rather than a refinery.
Calls on Yousaf "to take this chance to confirm he will do all in his power to protect this vital industrial asset and workers' jobs".
The First Minister says he met with the owners Petroineos this morning. Says he can give "absolute assurance" he will work to secure the site's future.
More here:
Tories first off the mark...
The Scottish Conservatives are the first to send out post-FMQs lines, telling journalists:
“Michael Matheson gave Parliament written assurances that this £11,000 bill was the result of constituency work and that alone.
“But his story has changed, and he now wants us to believe he was clueless about how that bill happened.
“If he had no idea how that bill was run up, why on earth did he claim taxpayers’ money for it?
“Michael Matheson is taking the public for fools. He repeatedly misled the press and the public in multiple statements. If it was an honest mistake, why did he make so many dishonest statements about it?"
Matheson questioned
Our political editor Alistair Grant managed to catch Michael Matheson on his way out of the chamber.
Here's what he said:
Labour reaction
Tell a lie - Labour were actually the first to get post-FMQs reaction out to journalists. My apologies to their speedy comms team for saying the Tories won...
Anas Sarwar said: “In the short time Humza Yousaf has been First Minister, the record of this Parliament has had to be corrected three times because of wrong information he has told this chamber.
“Once was in response to the serious issue of the Covid inquiry and deleted WhatsApp messages.
“Another was in response to me in this chamber when the First Minister gave an inaccurate answer about Scotland's renewables.
“But instead of immediately correcting the record, he took up hours of civil service time to try and spare his blushes.
"We know this because Labour now has the full unredacted emails between the First Minister’s office and officials.
“They show that when civil servants pointed out he was wrong he rejected their advice.
“Instead his advisors had civil servants spend a month coming up with a new line – including manufacturing statistics to fit his answer.
“This is a gross breach of the relationship between Ministers and officials."
Adds Labour would introduce a "Clean up Holyrood Act" to "sweep away the secrecy" of the SNP.
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night
That's all for this week's FMQs, thank you for joining us.
Make sure to head to scotsman.com/news/politics for all the best reaction and analysis from our politics team.
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