Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Scott Arthur and Keir Starmer

Wednesday 4th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I welcome the hon. Lady to her place. I am not going to follow her down that line, but now she is in Parliament and safely in her place, perhaps she could tell her new party leader that his latest plan to bet £80 billion of unfunded tax cuts with no idea how he is going to pay for them is Liz Truss all over again—although, considering that I think the hon. Lady was a Conservative member when Liz Truss was leader, she probably will not.

[Dr Scott Arthur (Edinburgh South West) (Lab)]

Q12. During recess, I visited Scottish Action for Mental Health’s Redhall walled garden, which I am proud to say is in Edinburgh South West. It has operated for decades as a therapeutic horticultural centre, supporting adults with mental health problems. Like similar community mental health services across Scotland, it is now under threat: it faces potential closure due to chronic underfunding of integrated joint boards by the SNP Government. Does the Prime Minister agree that facilities such as Redhall walled garden should have been a priority for the SNP when deciding how to spend the record funding settlement that Scottish Labour MPs won for Scotland?

[The Prime Minister]

What my hon. Friend describes is how health services in Scotland are utterly broken under the SNP, whether it is people waiting too long for mental health support in his constituency, or the Wishaw neonatal unit in Hamilton, which the SNP is threatening to downgrade. In 2021, the SNP Government said they would recruit 1,000 more community mental health workers. They utterly failed to do so. If they had a plan to fix Scotland’s NHS, they would have done it by now. Scotland needs a change of direction.

UK-EU Summit

Debate between Scott Arthur and Keir Starmer

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

That is a very good question that the right hon. Gentleman should put to Boris Johnson.

[Dr Scott Arthur (Edinburgh South West) (Lab)]

I absolutely welcome this deal, which puts us on the map as an outward-looking nation again. Above all, the benefits that it brings young people in Edinburgh South West are absolutely worth noting. We know that the deal will bring lower bills for people shopping for food and buying energy across the UK. Based on that, can the Prime Minister understand why the SNP is uniting with Reform and the Conservatives to take an isolationist approach on international trade?