St Andrew’s Day and Scottish Affairs

Dave Doogan Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[David Mundell]

The hon. Lady will be pleased to hear that change in Scotland is the theme of my speech, because I agree that we desperately need it.

In relation to SNP promises, we have heard it all before. Year in, year out, SNP boasts about bringing down waiting times ring hollow in the ears of patients whose experience is of being left to languish on those very same lists. It is not just on waiting times that the nationalists have let Scotland’s patients down. Emergency departments—the service people turn to in their most desperate hours—are overwhelmed. A year ago, more than 76,000 people waited over 12 hours in A&E before getting treatment, compared with just 784 in 2011.

[Dave Doogan (Angus and Perthshire Glens) (SNP)]

I am grateful to the right hon. Member for giving way, but I am struggling a little bit to reconcile his rhetoric with the facts. The fact is that waiting lists have been falling in Scotland for five months in a row up until now. He then moved on to emergency healthcare. Scotland’s core A&E functions outperform England’s and Wales’s consistently, year after year. How does he reconcile that dichotomy?

[David Mundell]

As Members across the Chamber know, this is a well-used SNP tactic of constant comparison with other places, rather than focusing on the SNP Government’s delivery compared with their promises. It is clear that there is a huge discrepancy between what has been promised by the Scottish Government and what has been delivered.

[David Mundell]

I do. What the hon. Lady points to is the shuffling of figures that we have just seen, so that the best figures are presented, but those 86,000 people I mentioned who have been on waiting lists for more than a year are erased from the debate. It is all about smoke and mirrors.

Analysis of this astonishing increase in waiting times by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine found that it has likely contributed to more than 1,000 needless deaths, despite the best efforts of frontline staff who have been failed by the SNP’s inaction. And what of the strain on those hard-working NHS workers? Last year, data revealed that NHS frontline staff were forced to cover understaffed shifts on 348,675 occasions. That is hundreds of thousands of times when there were simply not enough staff on hospital wards and in other care settings to meet Scotland’s healthcare needs. A recent report by the Royal College of Nursing Scotland warned that over the year to May 2025,

“at no point has NHS Scotland employed the number of nursing staff needed to deliver safe and effective care.”

The warning signs have been there for years, but the Scottish Government have failed to act on workforce planning, and it is patients and health service workers who are paying the price of that failure.

Of course, the healthcare crisis in Scotland is not restricted to our hospitals. Anyone who represents a rural constituency like mine will be acutely aware of the often severe pressure on GP services, where face-to-face appointments can be difficult to obtain, and that is to say nothing of the near impossible job of getting registered with an NHS dentist. In Dumfries and Galloway, which has one of the worst rates of NHS dental registration, more than 40% of residents are not registered with a dentist. That is not because they do not want to be, but because practices are not taking on new patients, and thousands of existing patients have been deregistered.

[Dave Doogan]

It is especially generous of the right hon. Gentleman to give way again. He touched on general practice. I am not suggesting for one minute that everything is perfect in Scotland, but our constituents enjoy 83 general practitioners per 100,000 population, compared with 67 GPs in Wales and 64 in England. How much worse must it be for constituents in England and Wales?

[David Mundell]

I am afraid we are back to the old record, Madam Deputy Speaker. We have heard it so many times. It does not wear thin; it must be digital now, so that it can be reproduced in just the same words that I have heard for the last 20-odd years. What the hon. Gentleman says does not relate to the experience of my constituents in Dumfries and Galloway when getting a dentist. They hold the Scottish Government accountable for whether or not they have a dentist, and for the promises that the Scottish Government have made in that regard. SNP Ministers say that the situation with dentists is “challenging”, but that is no substitute for the action we need to solve Scotland’s dental deserts, like Dumfries and Galloway.

And what of Scotland’s social care system—the very services meant to protect the vulnerable, the elderly, and those in need? Unions and public service watchdogs have repeatedly condemned persistent delays in discharging patients. Those delays clog up hospitals and deny timely care to people who should be at home or in community care. Staffing is chronically inadequate, care homes are overstretched, home care services are chaotic, and families often wait weeks—sometimes months—to get support for loved ones. Long-standing plans to deliver a national care service collapsed this year, having consumed tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, but without delivering a single additional hour of social care to those who need it. It is the record of the SNP Government summed up: make bold promises of reform; spend millions of pounds; blame everybody else, but especially Westminster, when it all falls apart.

For years, the SNP has made bold promises—promises of better health care, stronger social care, more GPs, more nurses, reduced waiting lists and an improved social care framework, but the facts speak for themselves. GP and dentist numbers remain too low, and constituents like mine struggle to get appointments. Too many newly qualified young medical professionals leave Scotland, even as vacancies are unfilled. More than £2 billion has been spent on agency and bank nurses, and midwives, over the past five years because of a lack of proper workforce planning. One in nine of Scotland’s population is currently on an NHS waiting list in Scotland, and despite the hard work of NHS staff working in the most challenging of circumstances, public satisfaction with the NHS in Scotland has plummeted to the lowest level since devolution. Once we strip away all the self-congratulatory boasting of Scottish Government Ministers, this is the reality of the NHS in Scotland after two decades of SNP rule: an older person waiting weeks for home care; a mother with a child waiting years for mental-health support; a nurse driven to burnout; a cancer patient left on a waiting list so long that even Scotland’s First Minister says it is “not acceptable”.

--- Later in debate ---

[Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow West) (Lab)]

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer—sorry, Madam Deputy Speaker. When we talk of Scotland, I am afraid my mind does sometimes wander to that other place at Holyrood.

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate about St Andrew’s day and Scottish affairs. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) on securing it and on an excellent opening speech. May I also add my thoughts for the families of the former colleagues we have lost this year to those of the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell)? They were, without exception, good parliamentarians, good people and good friends. They will be missed.

In a debate on Scottish affairs, it would be remiss of me not to mention the work of the Scottish Affairs Committee, which I chair. The Committee met for the first time in this Parliament just two days after it was formally re-established, and we have been working non-stop ever since. Although the Committee’s remit covers the Scotland Office, in practice we examine any issues affecting Scotland where the UK Government have a responsibility or interest. That results in a varied programme. In the last year, we undertook five inquiries covering topics that hon. Members might expect such as energy, the Barnett formula and Scotland’s industrial transition.

We also considered less obvious topics where Scotland leads the way or is implementing original approaches. For example, one of our inquiries looked at the impressive potential of Scotland’s space launch sector. We eagerly await the UK’s first rocket launch next year from the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Islands. Members of the Committee thoroughly enjoyed the visit and found their experience at SaxaVord enlightening with regard to the potential of that industry for our country. We also examined in detail the establishment of the Thistle in Glasgow’s east end. The Thistle is the UK’s first sanctioned safer drug consumption facility, and reflects a pioneering approach to drugs policy.

So far, the Committee has produced four reports; those hon. Members who have not quite sorted out their Christmas reading might want to pop down to the Vote Office and collect a copy of each, as they do make very interesting reading. We have also launched four new inquiries for 2026, including on digital and fixed-link connectivity, defence skills and jobs, and the future of Scotland’s high streets.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Committee’s work is getting out of Westminster and visiting businesses, communities and leaders across Scotland. Just this week, the Committee was on the Isle of Skye hearing at first hand about connectivity issues experienced by some of the most remote communities in the UK. We have also visited Shetland, the Western Isles and key parts of Scotland’s energy industry on the east coast. On no other Committee of this House would Members find themselves visiting community energy projects in the Hebrides one week, and having tea and cake on a nuclear submarine the next.

Seeing operations and engaging with stakeholders at first hand provides unparalleled insight that we bring back to Westminster and use to inform our reports. The aim of this scrutiny is to ensure that the work of the UK Government reflects Scotland’s unique strengths, interests and needs. In each of our reports, we set out how the Government can do that. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow Committee members, whose hard work, commitment and good humour makes our work possible.

This debate is about St Andrew’s day and Scottish affairs, so—surprise, surprise—I am now going to talk a little bit about St Andrew. He is the patron saint of Scotland, as well as of Russia and Greece. The New Testament tells us that he was the first of the apostles chosen by Jesus, and that he was ultimately martyred for his beliefs in Patras in Greece. We are told that Andrew asked those who would crucify him not to do so on a traditional upright cross, because he was not worthy to die in the same way as Christ, and that is why his cross is diagonal. That cross, with its blue and white design, forms Scotland’s national flag, the saltire.

We are told that Andrew brought his brother, Simon Peter, to Christ. He did not try to keep his new and inspirational friend to himself, but instead encouraged his brother and others to embrace and follow Christ. We are also told that it was he who found the little boy with the basket of loaves and fishes and brought him to Jesus, so that the crowd that had followed him could eat. He also arranged for some Greek people who wished to meet Jesus to do so. As a result of these stories, he is often spoken of as an intermediary, someone who was open and encouraging of others and who worked hard to bring people to Jesus through his missionary work. I mention that because I believe that those attributes are reflected in the character of Scotland.

We do not have an exclusive right to those values, and we do not always get it right, but we are generally a welcoming, supportive and encouraging place, with a warm welcome for the stranger. We have experienced waves of immigration over the centuries. Irish immigrants sought refuge from the economic difficulties of that island, my own family among them. At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, many Italian families came to Scotland. After the second world war, many Polish people sought refuge with us. And many people from the Indian subcontinent came to our country after partition. I well remember the Chilean refugees, many of whom came to Drumchapel, in my constituency, seeking safety having escaped from the brutal regime of the dictator, Pinochet. In recent years, we have welcomed many Ukrainian refugees. It is always a pleasure to attend the annual event to celebrate Ukraine’s independence day, held in Victoria Park in my constituency, which is an absolute joy, even if my painting skills have not got any better over the years.

All of that is the reason why the comments made last week by the leader of Reform UK, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), were so objectionable. He attempted to sow division in Glasgow, by describing multilingualism in the city’s schools as “cultural smashing.” What he chose to misunderstand—I think he made a choice to misunderstand—is that many languages are spoken by families in our city, including Scots, Gaelic and British sign language, and that for many children in Gaelic-medium education and in BSL education, English is not the language in which they are taught. Such comments by any politician are despicable.

[Dave Doogan]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady, my colleague and Chair of our Select Committee, for giving way. She is making a powerful point about Scotland’s identity and our values. She is a Unionist and I am a nationalist, but I do not think for one second that I am any more proud of my flag than she is proud of her flag. Does she agree with me that we must do everything that we can to prevent our St Andrew’s flag from being hijacked by those who would seek to use it against the very values that make Scotland the welcoming place that it has always been?

--- Later in debate ---

[Torcuil Crichton (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) for securing this debate on St Andrew’s day and for giving us the opportunity to take stock of the issues and challenges facing Scotland. I will not detain the House for long, Madam Deputy Speaker, because you caught me on the hop—I had hoped to be writing my speech while others made theirs.

I will plough on to discuss poor St Andrew. I have been checking in on Scotland’s patron saint, and he does not look very good. As a Scot, his average life expectancy would be just 77 years; his sister, Andrea, could expect to live to 81. Some 26 years into devolution and 18 years into an SNP Government who were meant to make things better, Scotland has the lowest life expectancy not just in the UK, but in the whole of western Europe.

But do not worry, because the SNP is coming to the rescue of Scotland’s ailing saint and ailing population—or it would do, if it could get ambulance waiting times in order. In January last year, one patient in Lothian on category red—that is a heart attack situation—had to wait more than 17 hours for an ambulance, and an individual in the highlands this year had to wait for 18 hours. It now takes a median wait of 22 minutes for NHS 24 to be answered in Scotland. The NHS app, which I have had for many years as a patient at the Royal London hospital, will not be available in Scotland until 2030. Why? Because the SNP Scottish Government refused the English NHS app, because the political optics of putting the St Andrew’s cross on an English app just would not look good, so Scots have to wait.

Scots are being ill-served. They have been waiting a long time through our revolving carousel of Health Ministers. A rotating carousel of 130 health strategies—one for every seven weeks of this SNP Government—has meant that 618,000 Scots are still waiting for specialist care in Scotland’s NHS. One figure is going up in Scotland’s health scene: the number of private health operations, which is up by 55% since 2019. Those are not just for those who can afford them, but those who need them because the waiting lists are so long that they have no alternative.

Scotland has a large number of health boards, with 14 health boards, 31 integration authorities and numerous quangos, all under tight Scottish Government control. Mike McKirdy, an eminent surgeon assigned by the Scottish Labour party to assess the future of Scotland’s health, has said it is a “complex structure”. He said that structure

“means reforms and improvements are difficult to roll out at scale or pace, while accountability and transparency are easier to avoid.”

Scotland is being ill-served in its health, and the ailing St Andrew is being ill-served by this SNP Government when it comes to health.

[Dave Doogan]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Torcuil Crichton]

I do not think I will.

Of course, St Andrew was bilingual, or trilingual or quadrilingual—as my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson) pointed out, he is celebrated in Russia and Greece. He appears on the Basque flag, and Basque is the oldest language in Europe. If he and his children were living in Glasgow, they would make up that one third of Scottish schoolchildren in the “Dear Green Place” who speak more than one language—something that the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), in his desperate attempt to divide Scotland, found so appalling. To allay your fears, Madam Deputy Speaker, I emailed the hon. Member for Clacton—I assume the email went to his constituency office. I saw that the email received no reply, because he is rarely seen in this place or in Clacton. But he has been informed.

The hon. Member for Clacton is appalled by the celebrated diversity of our great city, but I am not. I am very proud of the dozens of pupils at the Glasgow Gaelic school, and I am proud that dozens of pupils who speak Arabic, Urdu, Polish, Punjabi or Chinese are students as well, but these children—like St Andrew, ailing in his unhealthy bed on those waiting lists—are ill-served by Scotland’s SNP Government.

As was pointed out by the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell), a former Secretary of State for Scotland, there is a statistical fiction in education as well as in health. Professor Lindsay Paterson, the esteemed Scottish academic, has said that the attainment statistics for Scotland’s schools

“fail to capture the serious decline of attainment that has been picked up by PISA.”

Of course, the Scottish Government previously used international assessments to measure the gap between teachers’ appraisals and real attainment, but those surveys were abandoned in 2008. Now Professor Paterson says:

“What is euphemistically called pupils’ achievement of the curriculum levels is in fact teachers’ impressions of whether their own pupils have achieved the levels… They are simply hunches.”

In 2016 the then First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, promised that her Government’s priority would be to close the education attainment gap. On this week’s figures and at current rates, it would take 133 years to close the poverty rate attainment gap in Scotland—that is shameful. Scotland and St Andrew’s children are being let down again by this SNP Government.

[Dave Doogan]

Will the hon. Member give way on that point?

[Torcuil Crichton]

I will, if only because the hon. Member displays the best budget cut I have seen this year.

[Dave Doogan]

The hon. Member is very concerned about St Andrew. We should focus on St Andrew today, but in parallel I am concerned for St David, and what he and his family might be enduring under the catastrophe of Labour-run Wales. I wish things were better in Scotland, and I know that my colleagues in the Scottish Government are working extremely hard to make things better under the egregious constraints of this Union, but the Labour Government in Wales are not so motivated. Can the hon. Member explain why it is only St Andrew’s bairns in Scotland who are getting elevated out of poverty on these islands, while child poverty is rising in Labour England and Labour Wales?

[Torcuil Crichton]

I thank the hon. Member for that intervention, which allows me to highlight that some 95,000 children in Scotland are to be lifted out of poverty by our Chancellor’s Budget, which got rid of the two-child benefit cap.

It is not just in terms of education and health that St Andrew’s children are being failed. St Andrew was a fisherman and was used to boats, as are many of my constituents in the islands, but these modern-day St Andrews are being let down. They see thousands of pounds of shellfish exports rotting in the harbour, or having to be deep-frozen at extra cost, because of the failing SNP’s ferry fiasco. For that situation, Madam Deputy Speaker, I need no notes, because the ferry fiasco is writ large in the experience of all my constituents, who have suffered for years because this SNP Government did not manage to procure enough ferries and took their eye off the ball. This crisis, which they thought would affect a few hundred islanders, has become an international symbol of the failure of nationalism in Scotland.

This week I welcomed the extra £820 million that the Chancellor found to give to the Scottish Government this year. In my book—in anyone’s book—£820 million is eight CalMac ferries, but the SNP Scottish Government can only manage 2.5 ferries for £500 million. It is a shame and a scandal. People in the Western Isles know that the S in SNP stands for “stunt”—the portholes had to be painted on to the ship so that Nicola Sturgeon could have a pretendy launch. That £500 million means that the S in SNP stands for “squander”, with millions wasted, affecting the ability and confidence of my constituents to stay in their homes and be connected to the rest of the islands. I hope that S will also stand for “swept away”, because in May that is what Scotland needs.