4. We are facing a tidal wave of job losses; one in 10 workers could be out of a job this year. At Rolls-Royce in Renfrew, 700 jobs are under threat, 200 are under threat at the Crieff Hydro group, 80 at Fishers Services in Perth, 70 at Don & Low Ltd in Angus, 96 at Mainetti in the Borders and 1,000 at OVO Energy, including jobs in Perth, Selkirk and Glasgow. That tidal wave might last for three years. Is the Government ready? What is it planning to do about that jobs emergency?

The economic emergency that we face is colossal, just like the health emergency that we have been dealing with. All along, we have been clear that the health emergency quickly led to an economic one. We have been planning for that almost from the start. Throughout the crisis, on a weekly basis, I have been chairing a sub-committee of the Cabinet that is looking specifically at the economic issues. Benny Higgins has been chairing the economic recovery group; the group’s report is due to be published within the next couple of weeks and it will have important recommendations for us. Earlier this week, I spoke to Benny Higgins and the chief executive of Rolls-Royce; tomorrow, I will speak to the Scottish Tourism Alliance. If we take our eye off the health emergency, that will make the economic emergency worse. We are increasingly focusing on the steps that we need to take and the interventions that we will need to make to support the economy, businesses and jobs. Those steps and interventions will take a multitude of forms.

The two emergencies come closely together in the need to keep suppressing the virus sufficiently for us to be able to lift more of the lockdown measures and allow more of our businesses to operate and make money again. Those challenges are interlinked but Government and I are focused on both.

My fear is that the economic tidal wave is overtaking the advisory group and the work that the First Minister has just set out. The situation is urgent and we need an urgent plan. We want to see a new Government-backed jobs scheme, a universal basic income, capital investment in transport and energy construction, and investment in colleges and training agencies to reskill workers. Will the Government back that approach? Does the Government plan to intervene to stop businesses going under? It has done so at Prestwick, Ferguson and BiFab. How will the Government judge which companies and jobs it will save and which it will let go?

The First Minister:

We have set up the economic recovery group, which will publish its report probably within a week or so. It is right that we await the group’s recommendations and then set out, on the back of those recommendations, our implementation and delivery plan, which I am sure will have things to say on all the issues that Willie Rennie has raised.

Willie Rennie’s second point was on the Government’s willingness to intervene directly in companies, and he made my point in his question. The Scottish Government has always shown a willingness to do that when we can satisfy state aid constraints and when we can satisfy ourselves, so that we can satisfy the public, that there is value for taxpayers’ money. We will continue to be as interventionist as we possibly can be. There will always be difficult decisions about the circumstances in which we can intervene and those in which we might not be able to intervene. All of us must have open and frank discussions about that.

In recent weeks, Willie Rennie and I have exchanged views in the chamber on a universal basic income, which I support. I have long been interested in the concept, and the case for it has been immeasurably strengthened by the crisis that we are living through. However, the Scottish Parliament does not have the powers to introduce a universal basic income on its own, because, unfortunately, so many welfare and tax responsibilities are still reserved to Westminster. Therefore, we all have to engage in a real discussion about the abilities of this Parliament, whether in relation to borrowing powers or tax and welfare powers, and about whether we should come together to make the case for additional powers to lie here, so that we are better equipped to deal with the economic challenge that lies ahead.

I mean it sincerely when I say to Willie Rennie that, on issues such as UBI in particular, I hope that he will not only will the ends but join me in willing us to have the means to deliver those ends, because that will be really important in the weeks and months to come.