FMQs: Follow along live with our blog
Follow along with our live blog.
FMQs: Follow along live
Key Events
- Humza Yousaf will face questioning from Douglas Ross, Anas Sarwar and others at the weekly FMQs
- Earlier this week an attempt to block the government’s holiday lets licensing scheme was defeated, despite an SNP rebellion
- We are also expecting questions on the Paris Climate Agreement, offshore wind and repeat offenders
Welcome to The Scotsman’s live FMQs blog!
Welcome to our live blog for this week’s first minister’s questions. I’m Rachel Amery, and I’m The Scotsman’s political correspondent. I’m here in the Scottish Parliament to bring you all the latest news and analysis as it happens.
FMQs kicks off with questions from Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross at midday.
Quick catch up
Quick catch-up on what’s happened this week before FMQs gets underway.
- Hundreds of police officers could be cut: https://www.scotsman.com/news/crime/frontline-officers-will-be-cut-from-april-without-extra-funding-in-grim-warning-from-police-scotland-4334927
- Yesterday the Scottish Conservatives attempted to delay the Scottish Government’s short term lets proposal. They unsurprisingly lost this vote. Our Deputy Political Editor Conor Matchett was watching this debate: https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/tory-bid-to-delay-short-term-let-scheme-fails-amid-warnings-of-an-existential-threat-to-scottish-tourism-4335020
- SNP rebel backbencher Fergus Ewing appears to be on the brink of being suspended from the party after repeatedly voting against the government: https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/snp-msp-says-it-is-unwise-and-unnecessary-to-suspend-rebel-backbencher-fergus-ewing-4335268
- Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton says Humza Yousaf should refer himself to the independent advisor on the ministerial code for potentially breaching it.
Douglas Ross kicks off FMQs
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross is up first and he is going on police officer cuts. This was the front page of today’s Scotsman: https://www.scotsman.com/news/crime/frontline-officers-will-be-cut-from-april-without-extra-funding-in-grim-warning-from-police-scotland-4334927
Douglas Ross says budgets are now so stretched police officer redundancies are now on the table.
He says police officer numbers are at their lowest for 14 years and be the last force in the UK to roll out body worn cameras.
He says the “thin blue line” is barely visible now.
Humza Yousaf says he doesn’t accept that as 1,280 new recruits have joined Police Scotland in the last 18 months.
He says Scotland is now safer under the SNP government.
Bingo!
Humza Yousaf has blamed police officer cuts on the UK Conservatives’ mismanagement of the UK economy.
Lots of head shaking from the Conservative benches.
Scottish Labour next up
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is up next and he is going on NHS waiting lists.
This is a topic the Labour Party comes back to time and time again in FMQs.
Anas Sarwar says 40% of all knee and hip replacements carried out in Scotland recently were self-funded, and says this is because of increasingly long waiting lists.
He says in the last financial year 43,000 patients were treated privately, an 8% increase.
He says the most shocking part of this is 1,745 patients paid privately for a round of chemotherapy and asks why Humza Yousaf is letting this happen on his watch.
Bingo again!
Humza Yousaf is blaming this on the coronavirus pandemic, which he does every time he is faced with questions on failings in the NHS.
I really should start a proper bingo card for FMQs …
Anas Sarwar says he recently spoke to someone in Cambuslang who paid £15,000 for a hip replacement because he was going to have to wait three years for this on the NHS.
He says during the cost-of-living crisis people can’t be worrying about the cost of getting sick.
Scottish Labour says this is directly down to SNP incompetence and mismanagement.
Humza Yousaf says more activity is happening in the NHS now, with more inpatients and day care patients being seen, and says his government is taking action to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
Humza Yousaf is clearly thinking ahead to next month’s by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West.
This by-election has been billed as a direct fight between the SNP and Scottish Labour.
Mr Yousaf says his party have spent the summer U-turning and aligning themselves with “cruel” Tory policies.
He said he is unashamedly anti-poverty, but the only thing Anas Sarwar is unashamedly pro-Starmer.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.