World Book Day
Peter Grant Excerpts(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
Westminster HallRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)
It is a privilege to take part in the debate, Mr Pritchard. I do not really understand why it is not better attended—it is not as if there is much else of interest going on anywhere. I commend the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Nickie Aiken) for bringing this issue forward, and I thank her for her contribution to the drop-in we had for World Book Day.
This debate is one of those events in the parliamentary calendar that I always try to put in an appearance at. Having seen the difference that World Book Day has made in some of the primary schools in my constituency, which have some very high levels of deprivation, I think it is vital. Somebody being given a £1 book token to spend on a book might not seem like much, but if that £1 is the only pound spare in the family budget that month, it can make a big difference.
As so often happens in Westminster Hall, I have not heard much I would disagree with—maybe a bit, but nothing particularly significant. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) made a comment about schools without libraries, which is something that concerns me. I will come back to that in a minute, because I have a story about how a school library almost literally saved the life of someone who has gone on to do great things in my constituency.
Talking of libraries, I had the great pleasure a few years ago of visiting Innerpeffray library in Perthshire, which is Scotland’s oldest free lending library. It opened in 1680; I think the first one in England was about 20 years before that. By the way, the oldest continuously operating library in the world is in Fez, in Morocco, and it has been going since 859 AD. We sometimes forget how much of what we regard as western civilisation we owe to people who, these days, are not seen as part of western culture.
The hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster reminisced about her experience of reading. Although I do not directly remember this myself, my mum and dad would reliably tell me that the first sentence I learned to read was “How they ran last time out”, because my dear grandad Quinn taught me to read the racing results before he became so ill that he could not read them for himself. That was when I was three—I had originally learned to read from my pyjamas, which would have pictures of cats and dogs and so on. I know that I was only three, because I then learned to read and taught my big brother, who was four. I must have done something right because he eventually came out with an honours degree in chemical physics from Glasgow University and much else as well. If we get well taught when we are young, there is no holding us back.
However, I met my match when I got married. My wife, Fiona, is such an avid book reader that she once managed not to realise that the toast under the grill had gone on fire when she was standing next to it, because she was so engrossed in her book. She also caused consternation at the then Glenwood library in Glenrothes in the days before computers. I do not know how many people are young enough to remember this—I think it is an ever decreasing number—but library books were once managed using wee card envelopes that we had to put a tab in. [Interruption.] I see the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster nodding—she obviously learned about that in history at school. Fiona used to get four books out of the library in the morning, read them and take them back in the afternoon, which completely knackered the system because the tickets were still in the “Issues” and were not ready to be taken back in the “Returns”. They came to a compromise: when she went in in the morning and got books, the library staff would leave her tickets to one side, because they knew she would be back later in the day.
Something else that not many Members here will remember—this was actually on my fifteenth birthday— is that the BBC started a programme called “On the Move” to encourage adult literacy. A big part of it was trying to get adults who could not read, or who were not confident in their ability, to learn that that was not something to be ashamed of. If, for whatever reason, they had not had the chance to learn to read adequately in childhood, they would be given the chance in adulthood. That programme launched the careers of people such as Bob Hoskins and Martin Shaw. Those who have seen it will immediately recognise the wee logo that went with it, although they might not be able to describe it now. My uncle, Alex Mackenzie, designed that wee logo for “On the Move”. He has never received a single penny in royalties for it, but he did it for the love of adult education.
The hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Nickie Aiken) suggested that we all chip in with nominations for a summer reading list, and I notice that no one has risen to the challenge. I am going to suggest a book called “On the Come Up” by Angie Thomas, which was recommended to me not on World Book Day but at a summer reading event in Parliament a few years ago. One of the volunteers asked me what kinds of books I usually read, and went and picked it out. It is the story of a young, black, inner-city American girl who is a very talented rapper. The only one of those words I would identify with is “young”, and that was quite a long time ago. I said, “That’s not what I usually read,” and the volunteer said, “Exactly.” Sometimes it is important to encourage ourselves and others to read something completely different. People say that travel broadens the mind, but reading can broaden the mind a great deal without us having to travel very far.
I often make a point of reading about things I think I am not interested in, just to see whether I become interested in them. But we all like to go home sometimes, and I still love finding books by Val McDermid, a great Fife author; books by Ian Rankin, who was brought up in Cardenden, in my constituency; or some of the Scottish books of Sara Sheridan. The two books on my bookshelf that are falling apart because they have been read so often are “Yes Minister”—that was before I got interested in politics, by the way—and “Hamish’s Mountain Walk”, which was written by another person with a long association with Fife. Hamish used to teach in a school in Buckhaven, and was the first person to do a continuous non-powered journey across all 278 Munro mountains in Scotland. “Hamish’s Mountain Walk” is a about that, but there is a lot more in it than just mountain walking, and it contains a phrase I have always remembered. He encourages people not just to walk up and down a hill, or to cycle around the roads, but to take in as much of what they pass through as possible. He writes:
“Any book can be ordered from the local library where a whole world of vicarious fun lies ready to hand.”
That is as true today as it was when Hamish wrote those words almost exactly 50 years ago.
The difficulty is that, because so many local libraries have closed or restricted their opening hours, they are sometimes not that local any more, which is very sad. Although local authorities in Scotland—and I think elsewhere in the UK—have to provide for library services, there is no minimum standard of provision, and there is no statutory inspection system, in the way there is for policing, education or social work. Inevitably, if councils get squeezed but want to avoid going bankrupt, they have to keep providing the services for which there is a required standard of provision, and, sadly, the things that are not an absolute legal requirement start to suffer. That often means that cultural services, library services and so on are the first to suffer, which is sad.
Getting read bedtime stories by a parent or another adult is a great thing, but the earlier that children learn to read for themselves, the quicker they will learn to start thinking for themselves. That is vital, and it is something that modern society seems determined to stamp out. People are not encouraged to think for themselves enough, and reading a book allows them to do so. I have seen evidence that children who read a lot of fiction, regardless of whether it is, in the eyes of middle-class folk like us, worthy or trashy fiction, are less likely to grow up to be psychopaths—I mean clinically diagnosed psychopaths; I am not using it as a slang term. When someone reads fiction, they have to put themselves in the position of somebody else. We cannot read a book of fiction without putting ourselves in the shoes of one or more of the characters. Simply by reading what looks to be just a story about spacemen, ballet dancers or whatever, children learn to be empathetic.
Sir Gavin Williamson
The hon. Member makes an important point. Some of the statistics are interesting: people who read just 30 minutes a week are 20% more likely to have greater life satisfaction, and 19% of readers say that reading stops them feeling lonely. Similarly, non-readers are 28% more likely to report feelings of depression. Reading is therefore good not just from an educational point of view but from a mental health point of view.
Peter Grant
Absolutely. That is one reason why it is sad that children sometimes almost have to be forced to read at school. If somebody is forced to do something, the chances are that they will stop doing it as soon as they are no longer forced to do it. That is why I commend the work of the Publishers Association, through World Book Day and many other initiatives, in encouraging children and young people to want to read. Children should be encouraged to do so for fun—because they like doing it, rather than because they have been told they have to do it and to recite it when they go back to school the next day.
I promised that I would go back to the story about the school library. I am sorry that I cannot give any hints as to the identity of the two people concerned, partly because of the sensitivity of the information that the lady provided, but this is somebody in my constituency I know very well. I wish I could tell hon. Members what she has achieved and delivered for other vulnerable people in and around Glenrothes over the years.
She had a troubled childhood. By the time she was at secondary school, the path her life seemed to be set on was not a good one. On one of the relatively few days she went to school, she happened to go past the school library and she went in to see what was going on. She got talking to the school librarian, who was someone I later got to know very well. He sat down, heard her sad story and asked if she wanted a book. I do not think that the girl had read a book in her life. He gave her something simple and told her to take it away. He said that even though she was only supposed to have it for a week, she could take as long as she needed to get through it. The girl brought it back two days later. She had finished it, and she asked for another.
Simply pointing that young girl in the direction of books helped her to see life from a different perspective. That quite possibly saved her life, because she might have ended up with a lifestyle that would have led to an early death. Because of that almost chance encounter, and because she was introduced to books when she needed something to show her an alternative path in life, she has continued for decades to provide an enormously valuable service in my constituency. I wish I could identify the two individuals concerned.
The story also says a lot about the school librarian at the time. Simply by being prepared to take a few minutes and help someone who needed it, he helped to turn a life around with the aid of some books. Reading books of any kind can change lives for the better. It should be encouraged, although we cannot force people to do it, because that does not work.
I consider myself lucky that I went to school when every town had its lending library that was open all day, every day. Mine in Coatbridge was one of a great many public lending libraries built on the legacy of Andrew Carnegie. I fully appreciate the difficulties that library services have across the United Kingdom. They have had to change—they no longer just provide books and a place for people to read—but it will be a sad day if financial constraints cut down the library profession any further or stop its original purpose, which is not only life-enhancing but sometimes lifesaving: to encourage people to take time from their busy day to sit down and lose themselves in a book.
Oral Answers to Questions
Peter Grant Excerpts(5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Prime Minister
I very much hope that I have a chance to meet John later on. I join my right hon. and learned Friend in paying tribute to John’s care home for the incredible care that it provides. It is great that John is here and I am sure that everyone will enjoy meeting him later today.
Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)
The Prime Minister
I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman’s constituent for her long service in the health service. I assure him that we are doing everything we can to ensure the safe passage of British nationals out of Gaza. I will ensure that the Foreign Office gets in touch with him. All British nationals who have been registered with the Foreign Office have had significant interaction, and we have successfully ensured the safe passage of well over 200 people already. We will continue to do everything we can for those who remain, and I will ensure that we are in touch with the hon. Gentleman and his constituent.
Winnie Ewing
Peter Grant Excerpts(9 months, 4 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Ian Blackford
I am very grateful, because that is important. The sense of grief that they will all be feeling from the loss of their mother will be very different from our experiences. We have fantastic memories of Winnie, as so many of us were lucky to spend time with her. It is right that we reflect on all that.
My hon. Friend the Member for Central Ayrshire talks about thinking of Winnie as a woman. Let us quickly reflect on that and think about the circumstances for a woman coming to this House in 1967, when it was not that common. It is not just that a woman came to this House in 1967, but that she came here on her own to represent her constituents as the only SNP politician in this place. Quite frankly, the experiences that she had were utterly disgraceful in the main—the misogyny that she faced. I will pay credit to Harold Wilson, who was a friend of hers, but the experiences that she had in this place were absolutely unspeakable.
When we think about where we are, we think about the Scottish Parliament being re-established in 1999 and the SNP going into Government, and I often reflect on those who have driven our movement. We have spoken about being on the shoulders of giants, but for me, there are two people in particular who we owe an enormous debt of gratitude: one is Winnie, and the other is Margo MacDonald, who won the Govan by-election in 1973. As someone who was a teenager in the 1970s, what drove me into the SNP was the leadership of those two people. By goodness, we are so blessed by the leadership, drive, ambition, intelligence, wit, sophistication and glamour that both those women presented themselves with. What fantastic leaders and role models they were for Scotland!
Hon. Members
Peter Grant
No, certainly not.
My right hon. Friend mentions the wit that we got from Winnie and Margo, and one of the great things about Winnie was that her wicked sense of humour was as often as not turned on herself. If I can give one brief example, when I stood in the 2008 Glenrothes by-election, Winnie did a lot of campaigning, just by going for cups of coffee in places and talking to people. She came into the campaign rooms doubled up with laughter once, because a woman had spotted her and dragged her 12-year-old daughter across the road to meet this legend of Scottish politics. The wee girl said that she knew who Winnie was because she was learning about her in school. Now, Winnie was a lawyer—she should have known that you do not ask a question if you do not know the answer. She said to the wee girl, “You must be doing modern studies, then”, and the wee girl said, “No, history.”
Ian Blackford
Well, indeed: that is a typical Winnie story. The only thing that I could reflect on beyond that is the description of anyone going for a cup of coffee with Winnie. In all the years and decades that I have known her, I have never known anyone going for a cup of coffee with her—an Irish coffee, perhaps.
Since the issue of by-elections has been mentioned, it is probably worth reflecting that many of us were by-election candidates, including my hon. Friend and myself. I stood in Paisley in 1997.
Oral Answers to Questions
Peter Grant Excerpts(10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Steven Bonnar (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) (SNP)
Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)
Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West) (SNP)
John Lamont
We do not accept that analysis. We recognise that this is a worrying time for homeowners and mortgage holders, but we cannot ignore the fact that interest rates have risen across western economies as a result of the pandemic and the impact of the war in Ukraine. The Government remain committed to responsible economic management to bring inflation back under control, which is the only way to achieve sustainably lower interest rates and mortgage rates.
Peter Grant
It is not just homeowners who are affected by spiralling interest rates; they also contribute to an average rent increase of over 8%. The Scottish Government are doing their bit, using the limited powers they have. They have extended the rent cap and extended the evictions freeze into March, so that nobody in Scotland will be thrown out of their house because they are poor; and of course in Scotland, thanks to the Scottish National party, we are not selling off council houses but building more of them. What exactly are his Government doing to protect tenants in Scotland and to prevent an increase in homelessness?
John Lamont
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. I know he recently announced that he will be standing down at the next election, and while he and I clearly do not agree politically, his eight years of service to the people of Glenrothes is worthy of recognition.
As I said previously, tackling inflation is this Government’s priority. It is the best way to support mortgage holders and the people who rent accommodation.
Cost of Living and Brexit
Peter Grant Excerpts(10 months, 2 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Dr Whitford
I thank my hon. Friend for that point. While soft fruit is a particular issue in Scotland, this is an issue right across the UK because of the lack of European staff in harvesting. As my hon. Friend says, the sector is seeing food rotting. We are also seeing this issue in other sectors; there is hardly a sector that is not struggling for workforce.
With regard to the checks on incoming foodstuffs from the EU, the former ill-named Brexit Opportunities Minister, the right hon. Member for North East Somerset (Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg), delayed the checks for the fourth time last year. At the time, he suggested that they would cost £1 billion, and described them as an “act of self-harm”—duh! I could have told him that in 2016. On top of that, the now-infamous mini-Budget that tanked the pound and the stock market while the then Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Spelthorne (Kwasi Kwarteng), was still on his feet, sent mortgage costs spiralling. The relentless rise in interest rates in response to inflation is making home ownership unattainable for young families, as well as pushing up rents.
Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)
My hon. Friend has rightly pointed to the disastrous mini-Budget that was imposed on us by our previous Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for South West Norfolk (Elizabeth Truss). Does the leader of the Scottish Conservative party group in the Scottish Parliament, the hon. Member for Moray (Douglas Ross), who initially demanded that the Scottish Government implement those disastrous policies, and now demands that they spend billions of pounds to mitigate their effects, have any credibility?
Dr Whitford
It would be a more appropriate response by the Scottish Conservatives to get down on their knees in the Holyrood Chamber and apologise for the abuse they gave the Scottish Government for not following such crazy policies.
Scotland Act 1998: Section 35 Power
Peter Grant Excerpts(1 year, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Jack
I did say that there was no devolved Administration in Europe that had different gender rules to the state. The hon. Gentleman raises the USA, Canada and Australia, where there is no central ID law, because, differently, they have federal structures.
Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)
Perhaps the Secretary of State could take some heat out of this argument by confirming a few matters of fact of which a lot of his colleagues seem to be unaware. Can he confirm that this rushed piece of legislation has been under six years of scrutiny by the Scottish Parliament? Can he confirm that during that period and the last Scottish Parliament elections, an overwhelming majority of MSPs were elected on explicit manifesto commitments in favour of this legislation? Can he confirm that there is absolutely nothing in this legislation that makes any difference to the rights or ability of anybody to go into any protected single-sex space in Scotland or anywhere else in the world? Finally, when he eventually has the courtesy to let us see what he intends to put forward and the advice on which it is based, will he guarantee that this House will have a further chance to consider and vote on what he is proposing?
Mr Jack
I did not catch everything the hon. Gentleman said—my tinnitus gets the better of me sometimes. As to all the legal reasons, we have covered that a hundred times today. As to whether there will be a chance for another debate and another vote, my understanding of section 35 is that the Opposition have 40 days to pray against it, and that would then lead to a debate in this Parliament.
Scottish Referendum Legislation: Supreme Court Decision
Peter Grant Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)
If the Secretary of State is so convinced that there is a substantial anti-independence majority among today’s people of Scotland, will he agree to publish in its entirety all the polling done at our expense by the Scotland Office? If not, can we assume that the reason the Government are desperate to avoid a referendum is that even their private polling tells them that, this time, the result will be a massive yes?
Oral Answers to Questions
Peter Grant Excerpts(1 year, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Jack
Sir Peter Hendy noted in his final report that
“devolution has been good for transport”.
However, he identified that it has none the less led to
“a gap in UK-wide strategic transport planning that has resulted in cross-border schemes…seeming to be a lower priority than other schemes which may provide greater local benefit.”
Through the implementation of UKNET, we are committed to forging and strengthening transport bonds and creating a better-connected United Kingdom.
Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)
I do not think the Scottish Government need to take lessons in ferries from a Government who awarded a massive ferry contract to a company that did not even have a boat, but we will leave that to one side just now.
The Secretary of State was kind enough to mention my constituency colleague Jenny Gilruth. Jenny Gilruth has something in common with every single constituency MSP ever elected in Fife: she is not a Conservative. The Conservatives have never won a Scottish Parliament seat in Fife, and its last Conservative Member in this place lost his seat in 1987. In wards entirely within my constituency, the Conservatives managed one councillor, compared with eight from the SNP. Given the very clear expression of anti-Tory sentiment in Fife through the years, what makes the Secretary of State think that he knows Fife’s transport needs better than our local constituency MSP?
Migration and Scotland
Peter Grant Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Douglas Ross
It is rather rich for the hon. Gentleman to criticise me for quoting from the MAC report and then to quote from the MAC report himself. If it is good enough for him to quote from that report, it is good enough for me to quote from it.
I have a final quote from the MAC report, which said:
“We also don’t want to institutionalise some parts of the UK as ‘lower wage’; regional inequalities should be addressed through equalising wages.”
The Government share that view and are committed to the levelling-up agenda, and I would like to believe that that view is shared in all parts of the House.
I wish to say something on the role of the Scottish Government, who commissioned the report we are discussing.
Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)
May I take the Minister back to his enthusiasm for the work of the Migration Advisory Committee? According to the committee’s own website, its six good citizens consist of two from the London School of Economics, one from the University of York, one from the University of Warwick in Coventry, one from the University of Oxford and one from the University of Southampton. According to the biographical information on the MAC website, none of them has declared any previous experience working in Scotland or, as far as I know, in Wales or Northern Ireland, either. Although I welcome the Government’s new-found enthusiasm for the virtues of elite academic experts, as these people no doubt are, if the Minister wants an immigration system that works for the whole UK, surely that system should be looked at and analysed by people with experience of working in all parts of the UK. [Interruption.]
Douglas Ross
I am extremely sorry to hear that an experienced SNP Member, backed up from a sedentary position by the Chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart)—[Interruption.] Will he allow me to continue? The hon. Member for Glenrothes (Peter Grant) does not think that the MAC reports are in any way relevant to Scotland because there is no one Scottish on the committee. The MAC consults widely with Scotland. That report is clearly worthy of quoting, as it has been quoted twice now by the hon. Member for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East. The MAC’s membership is made up of experts who consult and engage with Scotland before they commission any report. We should thank them for their efforts rather than criticising them for not being Scottish enough. It is a particularly separatist argument that we get from the SNP time and again.
Mr Harper
No, I do not. The Migration Advisory Committee—the clue is in the name—provides advice to the Government. I am very pleased that we live in a country where decisions are taken by Ministers who are accountable to this House. I look forward to my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary setting out the Government’s plans once they have been approved by the Cabinet.
I have never quite understood one point. It was touched on by the hon. Member for Streatham, who speaks for the Opposition. It is the issue about pay and skills shortages. I suppose it is because people on the left broadly do not believe in a market economy, but my view is that, if there are sectors of the economy where employers are having trouble recruiting people, that rather suggests that they should increase the pay in those sectors, or improve the training that they provide for people—the economic value to those constituents. We should not simply acquiesce in allowing businesses to import an unlimited number of people to keep down the wages of the people working in the sector. Sometimes, as a Conservative, that is an uncomfortable message to deliver, because we are the party of business and economic growth: that is certainly the view of business. Sometimes we should say to business, “You should not be able to employ an unlimited number of people from overseas and keep wages down; you should actually increase the salaries you pay to your staff or increase the training opportunities to improve their productivity.” The Government having that level of creative tension with business would be more healthy than simply allowing it to import cheap labour.
Peter Grant
If the response to staffing shortages and skills shortages is to pay people more, can the right hon. Gentleman explain why it is that when the health service was experiencing desperate shortages of staff right across the board, his Government imposed year after year of public sector pay cuts in real terms?
Mr Harper
Opposition Members always find this tiresome—although it tends to be ones from the official Opposition—but the hon. Gentleman will know that when the Conservative Government came into office in 2010, we faced a significant deficit in the public finances—[Interruption.] SNP Members immediately start jeering, but it is true. That needed dealing with, and Government Members had to take some very difficult decisions to get the public finances in order; I commend Liberal Democrat Members, who took part in the coalition Government. I am surprised that Scottish nationalist Members of Parliament do not understand big deficits in the public finances, because Scotland has in its public finances a significant deficit of around 7%, which is significantly higher than the rest of the United Kingdom.
Wendy Chamberlain (North East Fife) (LD)
From the midst of the choppy waters, I have some life rafts. When the “Migration: Helping Scotland Prosper” report was published by the Scottish Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine) stated that, as a result of the work of the Scottish Affairs Committee, it was clear that the immigration needs of Scotland would be best met on a sectoral, rather than geographical, basis. The Scottish Affairs Committee was told that the UK can vary visas for different areas and sectors under existing laws. I therefore urge the Government to use these powers in consultation with the Scottish Government.
Agriculture is a key sector in my constituency of North East Fife that relies on a migrant workforce throughout the year, particularly at peak harvest times. The National Farmers Union estimates that 80,000 people are required to harvest crops across the UK each year, and a good proportion of this workforce is mobile, moving from location to location throughout the season. Borders within the UK can create barriers to work for such individuals. Our departure from the EU is already impacting on farmers’ ability to recruit staff, so we should be doing all we can to mitigate these difficulties rather than potentially exacerbating them. The need for visas for non-EEA nationals to crew fishing boats is acute in Cornwall, as it is in East Neuk and elsewhere in Scotland.
The Scottish Government’s migration report states:
“The current UK immigration system is complex and consists of a number of different routes and visas for work and study in an unclear system of tiers alongside a restrictive approach to family migration.”
I agree. That is why we proposed an amendment to the motion that focuses on the failings of the current system and the creation of the hostile environment that impacts on people across the UK, and the need to develop a system that treats everyone with dignity and respect.
Yesterday, I was approached by one of my constituents who had previously sought the support of my predecessor, Stephen Gethins. I thank Stephen for the support he gave to the family concerned. Valentyna Yakoleva is Ukrainian national who lives in my constituency with her son-in-law Andriya, her daughter, and their two children. She moved to the UK in 2010 at the age of 60 and has lived with her family in my constituency since then. After her travel visa expired, she should have been eligible for a family reunification visa, for she had no surviving spouse. She applied for the visa through a law firm based in Dundee, with the family making the assumption that it would be granted. She has spent this last decade raising her two granddaughters. Andriya, her son-in-law, told me that he would not have been able to work if his mother-in-law had not been looking after their daughters. Andriya sadly lost his job in 2015 but is now close to qualifying as a student teacher, thanks to Valentyna’s help.
But following errors in her initial application, and a failed appeal, Valentyna faces deportation back to Ukraine. She was held in the detention centre at Dungavel in South Lanarkshire following her arrest by the police in Fife, and was then held, away from her family, for two weeks before being released on bail following a judicial review. She has been given two options: to leave the UK now, voluntarily, with the prospect of returning for visits only after a period of a year; or to be forcibly evicted from the UK and unable to return for five years.
I find this utterly appalling. Valentyna is nearly 70—the same age as my own mother, who likewise supported me with care for my children in their early years, and indeed still does. Valentyna has lived in this country for a decade. She has helped to raise her grandchildren, allowing her son-in-law to contribute to society and the economy, and to pay taxes. She now faces being sent to a country where she has no family, no property, and no prospect of employment. In addition, she has a number of health issues that she needs support with. Her son-in-law has said that Ukraine
“is no place to be sending her back to. She has no family there and her pension was frozen around seven years ago with no prospect of her ever having access to it. Valentyna is our family, she has brought up our children and has been part of this community for almost a decade. Sending her back will be an absolute breach of her human rights and devastating for all of us.”
I agree. This is a total breach of Valentyna’s human rights, causing untold anxiety and distress.
Cases like these are a black mark against our society. I ask the Minister to intervene in this case. Clearly, it is totally unacceptable to deport Valentyna, sending her somewhere where she has no family, has not lived for a decade, has no prospect of finding a job, and has her health put at risk. We should aim to be judged on how we treat the most vulnerable people in our society. We are failing Valentyna and many others like her.
As a newly elected MP, it is incredibly worrying to see the clockwork regularity of constituents contacting my office because they or their family face deportation because their visas have not been processed or their settled status has not been granted. Other Members have referred to that today. You do not have to be a Member of Parliament for long for it to be clear, if it was not already, that our immigration system is not working. It is not fair—
Peter Grant
I agree with pretty much everything that the hon. Member is saying. If we were to devise an immigration system that we thought would work for our respective communities, they would not be that different. But will she explain why she wants us to support the Lib Dem amendment and to wipe out the whole of the motion that the SNP has put forward? She is asking us to wipe out condemnation of the Government’s response to the Scottish Government White Paper. She is asking us to delete the bit that says that we welcome the support that we have had from across civic Scotland. She is even asking us to delete the part that says that the Home Secretary should
“engage positively with the Scottish Government…before introducing the Immigration Bill”.
If she wants the House to support the Lib Dem amendment, could she explain why she wants to delete all those parts from our motion instead of adding them to what she has put forward herself?
Scotch whisky: US tariffs
Peter Grant Excerpts(4 years, 3 months ago)
Westminster HallRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
David Mundell (Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale) (Con)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the effect of US tariffs on the Scotch whisky industry.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Buck. I am delighted that the Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Moray (Douglas Ross), is responding to the debate, because he is the Member of Parliament with the most whisky distilleries in his constituency. He has been a powerful advocate for the industry since he was first elected.
For some years, the Scotch whisky industry has enjoyed a renaissance. There is a romance about Scotch, a heritage that is unmatched, and a global reach that is unrivalled. As an economic reality, Scotch whisky provides jobs and investment in rural communities, underpins a supply chain that extends across the UK, and has become central to Scotland’s tourism offer, attracting visitors to our shores from all over the world. As Secretary of State for Scotland, I spoke often of the whisky industry’s stand-out success. By the end of my tenure, I could recite the numbers in my sleep: £4.7 billion in exports to 180 countries globally, 40,000 jobs supported across the UK, 20% of UK food and drink exports, 41 bottles exported every second.
Global Britain, which is being debated in the main Chamber right now, is surely about reinvesting in the UK on the world stage; championing rules-based trade; and demonstrating that the UK is open for business, outward-looking and confident in its trading prospects. The Scotch whisky industry has led the way on that in its 150 years of exporting. Distillers large and small bestride the world and the brands have become some of the most recognised globally, as I saw for myself when promoting the industry in countries as diverse as Argentina, Mozambique and Japan, always with positive support from the Scotch Whisky Association and its members.
This great Scottish and British export has been put under considerable pressure since the imposition by the United States last October of a 25% tariff on the import of all single malt Scotch whisky and Scotch whisky liqueurs. I asked an urgent question in Parliament ahead of the tariff’s imposition and during the debate that followed, along with other Scottish Members, I set out the industry’s concerns about its potential impact. The Prime Minister spoke to President Trump, as I requested in those exchanges, and many MPs lobbied US Ambassador Woody Johnson.
Regrettably, the tariff imposition went ahead. I should be clear, however, that the US is legally entitled to impose the tariff because of the World Trade Organisation’s ruling on the long-running dispute between the EU and the US about aircraft manufacture. To cut a long story short, the WTO found that both Europe and America had given illegal subsidies to Airbus and Boeing. The WTO said that until the subsidies were repaid and their impact eliminated, each side was entitled to impose retaliatory tariffs on the other’s exports to encourage compliance. That may be legal, but it is a bitter blow to the Scotch whisky industry.
The US is Scotch whisky’s most valuable global market; more than £1 billion of Scotch whisky was exported there in 2018. The disconnect between the source of the dispute and the UK products affected by the tariffs is particularly galling. The US chose not to impose tariffs on imports from UK aircraft manufacturers, so Scotch whisky is bearing almost two thirds of the total tariff liabilities imposed on UK exports to the United States.
Our cashmere and shortbread industries are feeling the pain every bit as much. As the Minister and my hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) have highlighted, those industries have also been targeted and their imports to the US subject to a 25% tariff. Given the importance of cashmere to the Borders, my hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk raised his concerns directly with the EU Trade Commissioner. Depressingly, they have not even replied, which suggests that the EU does not recognise the economic impact of those taxes on businesses in rural Scotland.
Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)
I commend the right hon. Gentleman for his tenacity in pursuing this matter, which concerns us all. He has highlighted the vastly disproportionate effect that the tariffs will have on the Scotch whisky industry. He has also referred to other important Scottish exports that are affected. Has he seen any analysis of the proportionate effect on Scotland’s economy, compared with the economy of other parts of the UK, of the imposition of those tariffs? If that has not been produced, does he agree that it would be a good idea for the Government to produce it?
David Mundell
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his helpful intervention. I will come on to the initial feedback in relation to the impact of the tariffs. If we cannot resolve the issue in the short term, however, his suggestion has much to commend it.
As the hon. Gentleman alluded to, it is the small businesses, the new distilleries, that will be worst-hit as a consequence of a dispute in an industry with which they have no connection. Large spirits companies have portfolios of products that make them less vulnerable to market changes, but as Diageo chief executive Ivan Menezes recognised today, it is “devastating” for the industry as a whole. He said:
“It’s not a big impact on Diageo on the single malts into the US, however for the industry in Scotland, it’s devastating. It impacts small distillers, farmers and employees there. Thousands of jobs. That’s our focus. We hope sense will prevail between the US and the UK and the EU to get these tariffs down.”
It could get worse. Following a WTO ruling last December that the UK, among other European countries, was still in breach of WTO rules in its support for Airbus, the US Government proposed to increase existing tariffs and expand the coverage to include more products. As early as next week, we will know whether the tariffs on Scotch malt whisky or other Scottish products will rise or widen in their scope. Most troublingly, they could include blended Scotch whisky.
Meanwhile, since June 2018, the EU has imposed a 25% tariff on US whiskies in response to US tariffs on steel and aluminium. That is another long-standing dispute and another unrelated sector bearing the painful consequences of Governments’ failure to resolve disputes. It is a far cry from the mid-1990s, when the US and the EU, together with Canada and Japan, agreed to remove all tariffs on imported brown spirits. That unleashed an increase of 270% in total Scotch exports to the US. That is impressive, but it is put in the shade by the 400% increase in US whisky exports to the UK over the same 25-year period. Friendly competition has been good for both industries, for tax revenues and for consumers.
It could not be clearer that the UK Government need to resolve the outstanding issues on UK subsidies to Airbus to ensure that the UK is fully compliant with international law in the WTO’s view. That is evidently key to ensuring the return to tariff-free trade in whisky across the Atlantic.
Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)
I am very pleased to be speaking a lot sooner than expected, Ms Buck.
Peter Grant
It is the first time that I have seen so many Members fail to reach the indicative time limit. I will try to reciprocate because the Minister will undoubtedly have a lot to say. I commend the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) on securing the debate and on the very detailed and thoughtful way in which he set out not only the value of the whisky industry to Scotland, but the very serious harm that the tariffs can and have caused.
Very few of us in the Chamber represent constituencies that would make someone think immediately of whisky, yet everybody who has taken part in the debate—and the Minister perhaps more so—has in their constituencies significant numbers of businesses that rely on the wealth of the Scotch whisky industry. Unfortunately, the debate has clashed with another major parliamentary highlight, the maiden speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen South (Stephen Flynn). I have no doubt that, had he not been in the main Chamber, where he is supported by a number of hon. Members, he would have been here to speak.
Very few manufactured products anywhere in the world are as iconic as Scotch whisky—we are one of the few countries in the world to have a diminutive adjective for nationality that people immediately identify with our best-known export. As has been mentioned, the industry is critical to the economies of Scotland and the whole of the UK. It supports around 42,000 jobs and contributes £5.5 billion to the UK economy in gross value added. That is important to an economy the size of the United Kingdom, so how important must it be to one the size of Scotland?
What surprises a lot of people, no matter how often I remind them—I will continue to remind people and am grateful to the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) for doing so, too—is that my constituency in central Fife is one of the cornerstones of that industry and of the wider distilled spirits industry. Diageo’s Cameron Brig distillery in Windygates produces 480 million bottles of spirits annually. The nearby bottling and packaging plant at Banbeath in Leven, which the hon. Member for North East Fife mentioned, packs 39 million cases of spirits every year. At the recently opened Cluny Bond warehouse at Begg, 1.1 million casks of the golden nectar are sleeping as they wait for the angels to come and work their magic. Those facilities represent Diageo’s recent investment of almost half a billion pounds in my constituency, providing jobs for a workforce that fluctuates between 1,000 and 1,500 people.
The statistics published last week in the most recent Scottish index of multiple deprivation confirmed that parts of Levenmouth, and Buckhaven in particular, are among the most deprived areas in Scotland. Cameron Brig is barely a mile from those communities, and the massive vote of confidence and real commitment to corporate responsibility—rather than just words in the annual report—are welcome signs that things may be starting to improve for thousands of my constituents. They see one of the world’s biggest brand names investing in them and their neighbours time and again.
Anything that jeopardises the long-term sustainability of the Scotch whisky industry, or fundamentally undermines the market forecasts on which Diageo have invested heavily in my constituency and others elsewhere in Scotland, is of concern to us all. It concerns me as the SNP Treasury spokesperson but also as a constituency MP that, although Diageo do not yet expect tariffs to cause any problems to the Fife operations, that will change if they are continued or extended to cover blended whiskies and other sprits.
We can already see the impact of the tariffs: during their first full month, there was a 33% fall in malt whisky exports to the USA, as hon. Members have mentioned. If that continues, it will equate to a £100 million drop in annual sales, which could reach £200 million or £300 million if the tariff is also applied to blended whiskies. Although we should not forget the damage that has been done to other exporting businesses, as the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale alluded to, it cannot be right that 62% of the entire UK tariff is hitting one industry that had absolutely nothing whatever to do with the escalating dispute. Will the Minister consider producing an analysis of the proportional impact of the tariffs in the different nations and regions of the United Kingdom? I will bet that it bears no relation whatever to the proportional analysis of the nations and regions that benefit from the Airbus operation.
It remains to be seen how effective the UK Government will be at persuading the American Government to think again, as it is very difficult to persuade an irrational President to do anything rational. The UK Government have the chance to use the Budget to help Scotland’s world-leading drinks industry to get through what is literally an existential threat to many businesses. The Scotch Whisky Association is asking for a 2% cut in spirits duty, and I hope the Government will give that careful consideration, although in reality, such a cut would return only a small proportion of lost sales revenue.
A more fundamental problem is the continued and inequitable way in which different kinds of alcohol are taxed in the UK. It is not fair, rational or defensible for different kinds of alcohol to be taxed according to how they are made rather than by their alcohol content. If someone at the pub buys a glass of whisky and a glass of wine that contain exactly the same amount of alcohol, they pay 16% more duty on the whisky than on the wine. The only justification for that is it has aye been, and that is no justification at all.
If the Prime Minister is to keep his promise to scrap the import duty on American bourbon, he should make it clear that he expects complete reciprocity from the President of the United States and the complete abolition of import tariffs on Scotch whisky. A number of hon. Members present were there earlier in the week when we met not only senior representatives of the Scotch Whisky Association, but the President and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. They are determined to see the import tariffs on Scotch whisky and the export tariffs on their product abolished. They do not want a protectionist Government to protect them artificially; they want to be able to compete on fair terms with top-quality spirits, not only from Scotland, but from elsewhere. That is one of the few cases that I have seen in which an industry that would expect to benefit from the imposition of import tariffs is among the first to shout out that they want them abolished.
This sorry affair is yet another indication, for those prepared to look with open eyes, that Britain’s place on the world stage—it is currently being debated in the main Chamber—is nowhere near as influential as some people like to think, and that getting any kind of rational trade deal from a wholly irrational President will be neither quick nor easy. I hope that this debate and other exchanges will make it clear to the bully boys in No. 10 and the White House that we will not allow either of them to treat the economy of our nation as a pawn to be sacrificed in the way that our fishing industry was sacrificed.