Anas Sarwar: 2. I begin by echoing the comments about the sad passing of Lord James Douglas-Hamilton and send condolences to his family. I never had the privilege of meeting him, but I think we can tell from the comments made from across the political spectrum that he was held in high regard. For weeks now, the health secretary has been trying to save his job while the crisis in the national health...
Anas Sarwar: The Government has its head in the sand. There are 828,398 of our fellow Scots on NHS waiting lists, yet that pathetic answer is what we get from the Government. The answers to our freedom of information requests to health boards showed that, in the past year, 24,567 people died while on an NHS waiting list. Many of those people waited anxiously, often in pain, for potentially life-saving...
Anas Sarwar: It is not working. People are dying and waiting lists are going up. Our NHS is in crisis. Patients are being failed and staff are burnt out. We have a health secretary fighting to save his job. [ Interruption .] I say to SNP back benchers that it is their constituents on NHS waiting lists and that perhaps they should show some care for them. After 16 years of SNP Government, it keeps getting...
Anas Sarwar: 2. Honesty and integrity on the part of members of both our Governments are essential for the restoration of faith in public life. This morning, on the BBC, the Deputy First Minister was asked twice whether ministers in the Scottish Government always tell Parliament and the public the truth. The answer should have been an unequivocal and simple yes. However, instead, the Deputy First...
Anas Sarwar: I am pleased that the First Minister said that we should always tell the truth, because, in the short time that Humza Yousaf has been First Minister, the Official Report of this Parliament has had to be corrected three times because of wrong information that he has told this chamber. Once, the correction concerned the serious issue of the Covid inquiry and deleted WhatsApp messages, and...
Anas Sarwar: The people of Scotland have had only one opportunity to pass judgment on Humza Yousaf as First Minister, and that was the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, when there was a 20 per cent swing to Labour, and Labour got double the vote that the Scottish National Party got. Come the next general election, I will give the First Minister lessons on how to win an election. These emails show...
Anas Sarwar: We have all been absolutely horrified by the tragic scenes that we have been seeing on our television screens—the indiscriminate loss of innocent life; innocent young people murdered at a music festival; women and children being taken hostage; children being killed because of rocket fire; and babies dying because their incubators cannot run because of the lack of fuel and electricity. At...
Anas Sarwar: 2. While the health secretary fights to save his job, the crisis in the national health service continues. Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS Board has been named as a suspect in a corporate homicide investigation into the deaths of four patients, including 10-year-old Milly Main. For years, Milly’s family have sought justice but, years on from the case first being raised, no one has been held...
Anas Sarwar: The First Minister’s judgment is called into question, because Jeane Freeman put those people into special measures and Humza Yousaf lifted them out of special measures and empowered them. Let me be clear: John Brown should not be advising the Government and he should not hold any public appointments while the criminal investigation and the public inquiry continue. The chief executive of...
Anas Sarwar: It is such a tragedy that, every week, the First Minister continues to demonstrate how completely out of depth he is in his position. We have the first ever corporate homicide investigation of a public body in Scottish history, and those are the answers that we are getting from Scotland’s First Minister. Deadly mistakes were made, facts were denied, a cover-up is continuing and, to this...
Anas Sarwar: It is important that we start by acknowledging why the issue matters so much. It is not just because it speaks to an SNP Government that has lost control, and nor is it just because the story is another example of the secrecy and cover-up that have tainted the SNP’s approach to many of the scandals that are rocking the Government, from ferries to public safety and the state of our NHS. It...
Anas Sarwar: Yes. In ideal circumstances, I think that the First Minister should be here. I can only hope that he listens to this debate or at least reads the transcript of it. I know from the past two weeks that he certainly had not read the transcript of the Covid inquiry, but perhaps he will take the time to read the transcript of this debate. In June, the First Minister told the Parliament that the...
Anas Sarwar: I will give way. I hope that we get some clarity from the Deputy First Minister.
Anas Sarwar: That is an even more confusing answer. What the Deputy First Minister is saying is that the First Minister has breached the Government’s guidance. He is saying that he has kept all his messages and will hand them over, but somehow the guidance is that messages have to be deleted. It is complete and utter chaos. To put the matter in context, I note that the Government supplied 14,000...
Anas Sarwar: I am aware of the time, Deputy Presiding Officer, but I will take the intervention if I will get the time back.
Anas Sarwar: I am sure that the Deputy First Minister’s brain fog will have sounded like clarity to her, but it does not sound like clarity to anyone who is watching. What remains unclear is when the First Minister told the inquiry that he did not have messages. Was it before or after having committed, in June, to supplying all the messages in full? Perhaps time will tell on that. However, that is not...
Anas Sarwar: Why didn’t you read out any of your messages?
Anas Sarwar: Will John Mason give way?
Anas Sarwar: Will the member give way?
Anas Sarwar: Will the member give way on that point?
