Parents and pupils across Perth and Kinross are deeply concerned at the threat from Unison to strike for two weeks from 21 October, closing schools at the end of the local autumn holiday for a further fortnight. That action is being deliberately targeted at the First Minister’s constituency, and it will impact on young people, many of whom have already had their schooling disrupted by Covid.

Unison claims that it simply wants the same pay rises that other public sector workers have already been awarded, but school pupils are caught in the crossfire. What is the Scottish Government doing to try and avoid that damaging action proceeding?

Mr Fraser will not be surprised to know that I take the issue deadly seriously, as a parent of a school pupil in Perth and Kinross who stands to be affected and as the representative of 64,000 people in my constituency whose families stand to be affected.

Let me be absolutely clear with Parliament: I think that there is absolutely no justification for singling out and targeting my constituents just because I am the First Minister of Scotland. The Government is not even the employer here. A pay deal has been offered by local government—by the employers—which has been accepted by two out of the three trade unions. The two requests that were made for an offer to be made that was in excess of, or comparable to, the offer made to local government workers in England and Wales were fulfilled by the local government offer. A second test was that there had to be progress towards £15 an hour and the protection of low-paid workers, and that was fulfilled by the response of local authorities. For that offer to be accepted by two unions and rejected by a third, and for my constituents to be singled out for this treatment just because their MSP happens to be the First Minister, is absolutely unacceptable.

I hope that there can be some dialogue with the local authority employers to bring the situation to a conclusion. The Government has put additional money into the financing of the offer. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government has had to come to the Parliament to make £500 million of spending cuts to make the investment, and there is no more Government money available. Members of Parliament know the limitations of the public finances.

I appeal for the issue to be resolved speedily through dialogue between Unison and the local authority employers, where the proper dialogue should be undertaken, and for my constituents’ education not to be disrupted any further just because their MSP happens to be the First Minister.