Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross’s speech on today’s motion of no confidence in the Scottish Government :
Kate Forbes has said that she wants to hold an independence referendum within three months of the General Election
Kate Forbes and John Swinney are linked inextricably to Nicola Strugeon — SNP going from one failed leader to another leader who has already failed.
By Douglas Ross, Scottish Conservative Party leader
The Scottish Conservatives will vote in favour of the motion today.
We want to see this SNP Government removed and will back any opportunity to do so.
Yet Labour have failed to build the parliamentary majority they need behind their motion.
In contrast, my party’s Vote of No Confidence in Humza Yousaf was successful.
Humza Yousaf has announced he is resigning from the office of First Minister.
And it was the Scottish Conservatives who built a parliamentary majority to force him out.
That is what a strong opposition can deliver – and this is just the first step.
We can get rid of this entire distracted and divided SNP Government.
At the General Election, we have the chance to deal them another blow.
In seats across Scotland, it is only the Scottish Conservatives who can get rid the SNP, just like we are getting rid of Humza Yousaf, and bring the focus back onto the public’s priorities.
The would-be successors to Humza Yousaf are hardly rushing out of the blocks to grab the poisoned chalice.
But two names are being mentioned as the likeliest next SNP leader.
It looks as though Nicola Sturgeon’s health secretary will either be replaced by Nicola Sturgeon’s deputy or Nicola Sturgeon’s finance secretary.
What a damning verdict on the current cabinet.
Each of the individuals sitting on the front bench today, hand-picked by Humza Yousaf to run the departments of this government, have ruled themselves out.
Never mind the opposition having no confidence in this government, it seems none of the ministers have confidence in themselves either.
Both of the frontrunners, though, represent continuity.
Kate Forbes ran Scotland’s economy when it lagged behind the rest of the UK.
Her budgets put up taxes on Scottish workers and failed to pass on vital relief to Scottish businesses.
And Kate Forbes has also said that she wants to hold an independence referendum within three months of the General Election.
She is even more radical a nationalist than Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf.
Then there’s ‘Honest John’ Swinney. If he is successful, Scotland faces the dreadful prospect of replacing Nicola Sturgeon’s prodigy with Nicola Sturgeon’s right-hand man.
Of going from the man who left Scotland’s NHS in crisis to the man who left Scotland’s schools in crisis.
Of going from one failed leader to another leader who has already failed.
Whichever nationalist wins, we already know they’ll obsess about independence over everything else.
It could be Swinney, Forbes or any of the other 61 SNP MSPs, all they will really focus on is independence – not our economy, not schools, not our NHS.
We will remain the highest taxed part of the UK for workers and businesses.
One in seven Scots will remain on an NHS waiting list.
Scottish education will continue to fall down international league tables.
Dualling key roads like the A9 and the A96 will continue to be delayed.
Police numbers will continue to drop and dangerous criminals will be let off with reduced sentences.
John Swinney had a hand in so many of the SNP Government’s blunders.
For 16 of their 17 years in office he sat around the cabinet table and signed off on one disaster after another.
And was the author of so many of them – the Named Persons Scheme, the Covid exams fiasco and the failed UNCRC bill on the rights of children, to list a few.
John Swinney as First Minister would just show that this nationalist government has run out of road and out of talent, that campaigning for independence remains its only purpose.
And that the Scottish people will continue to be failed by the SNP.