In some respects, I admire his courage: brazenly walking into the Holyrood chamber and declaring that “being First Minister is not without its challenges”. Some understatement. But to then go ahead and insist this is a “fresh start for Scotland” is simply delusional. Yousaf is the SNP’s self-confessed continuity candidate, and made great play of that during his party’s messy leadership contest. He was clearly backed by Peter Murrell’s HQ operation, before Murrell was arrested and released without charge, pending further investigation. He was no doubt backed by SNP treasurer Colin Beattie, before he too was arrested and released without charge, pending further investigation, and then resigned. Desperate U-turns and stealing policies from Labour do not constitute a “fresh start”; it’s just more of the same incompetence and lack of vision for Scotland’s future. Yesterday, the Scottish Government held a debate in parliament entitled “managing Scotland’s finances”. I’m not making this up. Scotland, the SNP are taking us for fools. But while years of cover-up and secrecy by the nationalist hierarchy are dominating today’s headlines, there was actually a far more important news story that emerged on the same day as their Treasurer’s arrest. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation published new research which found a “dramatic increase” in very deep poverty in Scotland, with nearly half a million of our fellow citizens facing profound hardship. That increase has happened over the period that the SNP has been in charge. The stats are damning: the equivalent of the entire population of Dundee has been plunged into very deep poverty over the past two decades. And this all predates the cost-of-living crisis and Covid, before the SNP start to make up excuses for their failings in office. Working-age poverty in Scotland is soaring at the fastest rate in the UK. The number of working-age people in poverty increased by three per cent between 2010-13 and 2019-22 UK-wide, but in Scotland it rose seven times faster, at an astonishing 21 per cent. You would fully expect the Tories to inflict so much hardship on households, but for the SNP to then go and multiply that damage shows just how devastating the nationalists’ decisions in office have been. We have a morally bankrupt Tory party and the SNP trying not to go bankrupt. The SNPs response: these figures show we need independence to help. Same old, same old. It’s not only the SNP’s own bank account that has been left bare by the party’s incompetence. They have left workers, businesses and families out of pocket too. For too long they have been distracted by their negative campaign for independence, their obsession with cover-up and secrecy, and their choice of spin over substance. Scotland deserves better than more managed decline under Humza Yousaf. We need to show the door to two economically illiterate governments – and only Labour can do that. I’m proud that Anas Sarwar has asked me and our brilliant deputy leader Jackie Baillie to be co-coordinators for the coming general election campaign – and we’re ready to put our vision to voters. Only Labour can provide the change Scotland needs, return economic competence to government, kick out the Tories, and tackle the country’s shameful levels of poverty. Ian Murray is Labour MP for Edinburgh South
