Free school meals for all primary school children were a commitment that the Scottish Greens secured back in 2021. That was being delivered when we were in government. The policy right up until April this year was to universally roll out meals to all children in primary 6 and 7 by 2026.

The Scottish Greens champion free school meals for all because we know that getting school meals to all kids is an effective way to mitigate the impacts of and stigma around child poverty. Yet, as soon as the Greens are out of the room, the Scottish Government drops the policy. Can the First Minister therefore explain how we are supposed to take seriously his commitment to tackling child poverty?

The Government is facing acute financial challenges because of the persistence of the austerity agenda and the cumulative effect of inflation, which have eroded our budgets by a value of about one fifth in the past three years, and because we are having to find about £800 million in this financial year to meet public sector pay claims.

Lorna Slater will know from her experience in government that, once the financial year starts, the Government cannot expand the resources that are available to it. We have a fixed sum of money available to us once the financial year starts. All that we can do is either receive consequential funding from the United Kingdom Government, which might expand those resources, or reallocate resources within the budget.

The Government has reluctantly undertaken to take some decisions that will ensure that free school meals are available to young people whose families are in receipt of the Scottish child payment, which absolutely focuses our work on tackling poverty at a time when we are facing acute financial pressure. That is the difficult decision that the Government has had to make.

Lorna Slater will appreciate from her period in government that the Government regularly has to face up to difficult financial choices, particularly given the persistence of the austerity climate that we thought we had seen the back of with the Conservatives.

During our time in government, the Scottish Greens scrapped peak rail fares and introduced a groundbreaking fund to restore nature and create jobs across rural Scotland. We introduced legislation for a robust system of rent controls. We were on track to ban conversion practices and roll out free bus travel to asylum seekers. All that work is being undone, slashed, watered down or shelved, and now there is the betrayal of free school meals.

The message of this week’s programme for government is that, if people want progressive green policies, they need to vote to have Greens in the room. What does the First Minister have to say to voters who backed those policies and now feel let down?

Lorna Slater’s question gives me the opportunity to make clear that the Government is progressing with the legislation to ban conversion therapy in Scotland. However, we think it a pragmatic step to work with the United Kingdom Government to determine whether there is a UK-wide approach to that, which would enable us to avoid some of the difficulties in which we found ourselves in relation to the gender recognition legislation. That is not walking away from the commitment to end conversion therapy but is a pragmatic step to try to avoid some of the legislative difficulties in which the Parliament found itself in relation to gender recognition. I hope that that provides some degree of reassurance.

Lorna Slater asked me what my message is to people at this particular time. We can look at that in a number of ways. The Government has put in place, agreed and supported pay deals that will lift families out of poverty. Household incomes will increase substantially and poverty will be eroded because of the above-inflation pay increases that the Government is prepared to sanction. Although I understand the anguish that people feel about those choices, I cannot spend the same money twice.

The Government believes that avoiding industrial action in our public services, so that we can address the issues that Mr Sarwar has—fairly—put to me about the performance of the health service, by ensuring that we deliver pay deals that are commensurate is important. However, at the same time as delivering those pay deals in a fixed budget, I cannot afford some of the policy commitments that I would dearly love to introduce, because we are still bound by the shackles of austerity.