What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support economic growth in Scotland.

What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support economic growth in Scotland.

What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support economic growth in Scotland.

What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support economic growth in Scotland.

What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support economic growth in Scotland.

What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support economic growth in Scotland.

Just last week, we launched the UK Government’s £140 million local growth fund, which will help to deliver economic growth to five Scottish regions. Scotland will also benefit from around £700 million of other local and regional project funding over the next three years. In addition, as we pointed out in relation to the Budget, the UK Government have provided the Scottish Government with the largest block grant in the history of devolution.

I thank the Secretary of State for the announcement of £11 million of local growth funding for Ayrshire. Ayrshire boasts internationally successful businesses in the engineering, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, defence and energy sectors, and I have been working with my excellent Ayrshire colleagues and the Ayrshire chambers of commerce to ask businesses what more we can do to grow the economy. Does the Secretary of State agree that we must support Ayrshire’s most successful sectors and ensure this region plays its part in growing Scotland’s economy?

Absolutely. I welcome the work of the ambitious Ayrshire consultation, and pay generous tribute to the work that my hon. Friend is doing. When I was Trade Minister, I visited companies including Ecocel and GE Aerospace in Ayrshire, and saw for myself the extraordinary potential for growth-driving sectors such as advanced manufacturing. As part of the more than £200 million the UK Government are investing in Ayrshire, the local growth fund will provide flexible, targeted support to help unlock exactly that potential.

After years of increases to the cost of living, my Airdrie and Shotts constituents are understandably impatient for change, and want to see the benefits of economic growth in their communities and in their pockets. Can the Secretary of State provide further detail on how this Government are supporting the growth of local economies in North Lanarkshire, and what role does he see AI, advanced manufacturing and life sciences playing in that growth by helping to develop supply chain resilience locally?

Of course, North Lanarkshire has been at the heart of Scottish manufacturing for many decades. Since 2019, it has actually grown faster than the national average in Scotland, due to its highly skilled workforce and ambitious local development plans. I am delighted that large US companies such as CoreWeave have recognised that potential, with CoreWeave having invested £1.5 billion in North Lanarkshire’s growing AI infrastructure. I can assure my hon. Friend that North Lanarkshire has a strong advocate and supporter in the UK Government—we are determined to fulfil that potential.

Buses are hugely important to our communities and our transport network, so it is vital that Falkirk-based Alexander Dennis Ltd and its supply chain, including Dellner Glass in Consett in my Constituency, are supported. It has taken the SNP First Minister over a year to recognise that. Can the Secretary of State set out how he is working with other Departments to ensure that jobs and the company not only survive, but thrive?

Of course, I warmly welcome the decision to keep Alexander Dennis’s Falkirk and Larbert sites operational. That will be a huge relief to the talented workforce, not just in those parts of Scotland, but at Dellner Glass and other parts of the supply chain. I recently met the president and managing director of Alexander Dennis, Paul Davies, to discuss its strategic plans and the growth of UK bus manufacturing, and I am also supporting the positive progress made by the Department for Transport’s UK bus manufacturing panel—the first of its kind—which brings industry leaders such as Alexander Dennis together with metro mayors to support manufacturing, boost regional economies and create jobs.

As chair of the international trade and investment all-party parliamentary group, I am pleased that we are running the power of place campaign to encourage colleagues to highlight incredible small businesses that are exporting out of their Constituency. Does the Secretary of State agree that this initiative and others such as Brand Scotland are invaluable for showcasing the power of Scottish products in markets across the world, and will he meet me to explore the ways in which we can improve exports out of Scotland?

In my previous role as a Trade Minister, I was proud to promote world-class Scottish products from satellites to whisky. Since 2024, the Government have been working to extend those international trading benefits. For example, the UK-India trade agreement will boost the Scottish economy by an estimated £190 million a year. Both Brand Scotland and the power of place can help small businesses in Scotland and elsewhere to increase their global exports. I pay generous tribute to my hon. Friend and thank the international trade and investment all-party parliamentary group for its important work. I would be pleased to hear more from him about the work we can do together.

In November, I called for urgent Intervention to support the Forth valley’s industrial economy. Since then, we have a £150 million deal to protect 500 jobs at Grangemouth’s ethylene plant, £14.5 million in the Budget to unlock hundreds of new jobs quicker at Grangemouth, such as those announced at MiAlgae, and £9.8 million of local growth funding announced at Forth Valley college last week, despite some nationalists moaning that the money should have been sent to St Andrew’s House rather than to Falkirk, Clackmannanshire and Stirling. What further steps will the Secretary of State be taking to support the vast economic potential of the Forth valley?

Just last week, I was with my hon. Friend in Falkirk announcing £9.8 million-worth of funding for the Forth valley region as part of the new local growth fund. Meanwhile, the UK Government are working hard to secure further investment for the Grangemouth site. Tomorrow, the Minister, my hon. Friend Kirsty McNeill, will be in Scotland signing a memorandum of understanding for the Forth green freeport, unlocking £25 million in capital funding to support economic growth in the region. That, frankly, is the difference that having a Labour Government with Scots at the heart can make to economies such as Falkirk’s.

Does the Secretary of State agree that yesterday’s SNP budget, which metes out another round of civic vandalism to local authority budgets, demonstrates a failure to understand that economic growth is built from the ground up and requires well-funded local authorities delivering schools, infrastructure and clean, safe communities? Does he also agree that Scotland needs a Labour Government at Holyrood, with the same ambition for growth being shown by this UK Labour Government, if it is to unlock its full economic potential?

I sense that my hon. Friend has forgotten more about local government financing than John Swinney will ever know. The reality is that the First Minister has been writing budgets for 19 years in the Scottish Government, while at the same time Scottish local government has been pushed to the brink of failure. The independent analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that Scottish local government finance is set to see reductions averaging 2.1% a year in real terms. That would require each Scottish council to increase council tax by around 8% just to hold budgets constant. My question for the First Minister is the same the day after the budget as it was the day before: “John, where’s the money gone?”

The Secretary of State will know that the Borderlands inclusive growth deal is an important factor in driving growth in the south of Scotland, and I am looking forward to speaking to the Minister next week about the deal. With such deals, the important thing is getting the money out the door. Over the years, a number of projects originally identified will not now go ahead. Does the Secretary of State agree that new projects should be brought on board, including replacing the bridges at Annan, which have been damaged in storms over recent years?

I know from the right hon. Gentleman’s expertise and understanding of his Constituency the challenge in relation to Annan and the fact that the bridges were swept away in the floods. I can assure him that my officials are working closely with the Borderlands inclusive growth deal partners to oversee our £65 million investment in projects in that area. We are endeavouring to strike a balance with ensuring that there is effective local leadership, but he makes a powerful case that in recent years we have not seen delivery at the pace that he and we would have wanted. I hope that next week’s meeting is a constructive and useful opportunity to discuss these matters.

The SNP delivered yet another ambitious budget for Scotland yesterday. It saw almost £1 billion for rates relief, £5 billion for energy and climate change and a 10% uplift for Scotland’s colleges. [Interruption.] The SNP has delivered 10.5% growth since 2007, compared with the UK’s 5.1%. The question is not about what the UK Government will do for Scotland’s economy, but what they will do to stop damaging it. [Interruption.]

Through the shouting, I heard the claim that yesterday’s announcement in the Scottish budget had helped Scottish colleges. I had the opportunity to visit Forth Valley college last week; I simply invite the hon. Gentleman to talk to the principal of that college, or indeed the principal of West college, or the principals of any of the further education colleges in Scotland. If he were to suggest for one second that the uplift announced yesterday touches the sides of the 20% cut that we saw previously, that would be an interesting perspective. I tell him to look at the numbers and not to judge this on the rhetoric; he should judge the cuts that his Government have delivered, and then come back and, perhaps, apologise to the young people of Scotland.

Business rates are crippling, particularly for the hospitality sector in my Constituency, including hotels. We in Scotland have not seen the initiatives that have delivered business rates relief in other parts of the United Kingdom. The UK Government may be U-turning on this issue, but would they consider a cut in VAT for hospitality, so that businesses throughout the UK can benefit?

My initial glance at the Scottish budget that was announced yesterday suggests that in 2026 there will still be significant uplifts in terms of business rates across Scotland. That is a direct challenge to the claims that we have heard from the Scottish Government in relation to economic growth. I hope that as well as continuing to advocate and make the case to the UK Government, the hon. Lady and her colleagues will take the opportunity to say that Scotland’s high streets are being let down by the Scottish Government as surely as its public services are being let down.

Putting money back into people’s pockets is vital for economic growth, but today the Government have signed the country up to the highest energy Bills for offshore energy for the next 10 years, and to bills that we will be paying for 20 years. Can the Secretary of State explain how this will put more money into people’s pockets for them to spend in high streets, rather than just spending it on higher bills?

Let us start with the facts. Our auction today delivers new renewable power, and building and operating that will be cheaper than building new gas. Let me give the hon. Lady the figures. Here are the key facts: the cost of building and operating new gas—£147 per megawatt-hour; the strike price that we agreed today—an average of £91. That means that the price of wind that we have secured is 40% lower than the cost of building and operating new gas power plants. What the hon. Lady has said is simply not true.

Tonight, millions of people will tune into “The Traitors”, which was filmed at Ardross castle in my Constituency. I really should have put on my Claudia Winkleman eyeliner for this one. The programme has brought millions of pounds and jobs to the highlands. What plans has the Secretary of State to encourage the screen industry to look at locations in Scotland like Ardross castle?

I defer to my Cabinet colleague the Health Secretary, given his expertise and knowledge when it comes to “The Traitors”. He made a powerful case on television that he had watched the series, and I then had to catch up subsequently. Let me simply say that Ardross castle—not just the castle itself, but the scenes surrounding it—is a fantastic advertisement for Scotland. Only yesterday I was talking to my hon. Friend Chris Kane about the huge potential for the film industry in Scotland, and we stand ready, along with our colleagues in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, to do whatever we can to support screen in Scotland.

The Secretary of State talks about supporting economic growth in Scotland. Perhaps he should check in with the local authorities across the highlands and islands, which, combined, have received absolutely nothing from the UK Government’s local growth fund. Life is tough enough for our rural communities, and the decision to exclude them from the fund will only make things more difficult. Will the Secretary of State listen to the advice of the leader of Argyll and Bute Council, Councillor Jim Lynch, who desperately wants him to rethink this allocation?

I understand that the SNP’s grievance machine does not run on facts, but let me introduce a few facts into the conversation. The highlands and islands are benefiting from more than £300 million in investment, including £80 million to support neighbourhoods through Pride in Place, and, of course, the £25 million for the Inverness and Cromarty Firth green freeport. I can attest to that, because I visited Inverness and announced it.

I call the Shadow Secretary of State.

The Labour Government are doing absolutely nothing to grow the Scottish economy, given the national insurance increase, the family farm tax, the unemployment rights Bill and the gutting of the oil and gas industry. Growth has been halved, unemployment is up and inflation is up. It is total incompetence. However, the Government are not only incompetent but weak—so weak that Scottish Labour announced that it would not oppose the SNP’s budget before its members even knew what was in it. We know that they are not very good at government, but you would have thought that after all these years they might have worked out how to do Opposition, wouldn’t you?

Let us see whether this Opposition Front Bencher agrees with the Leader of the Opposition, because, of course, he does not need to take my word for the complete chaos left by the last Government. The present leader of the Conservative party is the one who admitted they had “no plan for growth”, so we are not going to take any lectures from a party that delivered not just the Liz Truss Budget, but an economy high in inequality and low in growth.

What we saw yesterday from the SNP was nothing more than the same old tired, stale Government with tired, stale gimmicks, handouts and an addiction to punishing hard-working Scots with the highest taxes for poorer services. There was nothing for growth, nothing for entrepreneurs and nothing for businesses, but what would we expect from the separatist pressure group cosplaying as a Government that is the SNP? Does the Secretary of State agree that, after 19 years, we need change in Scotland, and that the only party with a plan to cut tax, cut the benefit bill, support business and grow the economy is the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party?

Unsurprisingly, no. I half agree with the Shadow Secretary of State in that, frankly, Scotland deserves better than a Government who, after 19 years, are claiming to be the change that Scotland needs. The reality is that, when I am on the doorsteps in Lothian East, I ask people inclined to vote SNP a single question, “Can you name a single area of Scottish public life that has got better over the last 19 years?” We have had two decades of talking about independence, and what do we have to show for it? That Budget is not the change that Scotland needs; the change we need is Anas Sarwar and Scottish Labour.

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

I congratulate the Government on the successful seventh round of the allocation of green energy in contracts for difference, nearly 20% of which are going to Scotland. It is good to see that, even amid their U-turns, a Liberal Democrat system from over a decade ago is still delivering. What discussions has the Secretary of State had with his Cabinet colleagues to ensure that the benefits are passed on to the Scottish people through skilled jobs, working to upgrade the grid and, crucially, protecting and defending our offshore infrastructure?

I was last in touch with the Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary about an hour ago. I talked to him after the Cabinet, and I discussed these issues with him in the Cabinet. It is a very serious question, and it deserves a serious answer. The choice is not whether to build, but what to build, and our answer is clean home-grown power that the United Kingdom controls. Our answer is that we should build new renewables, because they are cheaper to build and to operate than gas.

I call the SNP spokesperson.

I wish the Secretary of State the best for 2026. I am glad he caught “The Traitors”, because I am so sorry to have heard the language used about Scottish Labour MPs by Labour MPs in the press recently. If what he is saying is the best way to improve our lives and our economy, why is Scotland the only part of the UK where child poverty is going down?

In part, child poverty will be falling because of the 95,000 kids we will help by abolishing the two-child benefit cap. It is not a coincidence that, in a single afternoon, our Chancellor of the exchequer took the mantle from Gordon Brown as the politician who lifted the most kids out of poverty across the UK in a single Parliament. Gordon Brown had taken that mantle previously from Denis Healey. It is not a coincidence that Labour Chancellors lift kids out of poverty. That is what we do, and we are proud of it.

I would take the Secretary of State a little bit more seriously if so many Labour MPs had not lost the Whip for backing our vote on tackling the two-child cap. The Scottish child payment, which has been described as “game changing”, has been extended to provide additional funding for babies, meaning that those from deprived communities in Scotland get the best start in life anywhere in the UK in Scotland, so why on earth is Labour abstaining on the Budget? [Interruption.] Just as the Prime Minister turns up, maybe Labour can explain why it abstains and why it does not stand for anything.

We are not spending our time indulging in the games of Opposition; we are getting on with the serious job of government. That includes delivering a record package of employment rights to help raise pay, because the critical point the hon. Member failed to mention is that three quarters of the kids in poverty in our country today are in working households. That is why the Employment Rights Bill matters, and that is why the 220,000 people being lifted out of poverty as a consequence of increases in the minimum wage matter. We have a comprehensive approach, which is why we have a comprehensive strategy.