Chris Kane MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 3 Dec 2025 · Local Media · Hansard source

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  Back in 1991, when I was 15 years old, I applied for work experience at Central FM in Stirling. I was meant to be there for a week, and I stayed for 10 years as a broadcaster. Those were golden days of Scottish local radio, shaped by stations such as Central, Radio Forth and Radio Clyde, by familiar voices, great music and genuinely local news. When a winter storm hit, we tuned in to hear which schools would be closed. We rallied behind Cash for Kids and other campaigns that defined that era. A few years later I began writing for the Stirling Observer . I can still picture the newsroom buzzing with reporters, sub-editors, photographers, and the sense of a team that knew its community inside-out. Then came the world wide web. None of us realised how profoundly it would change everything. When I started at Central FM, I had 17 radio stations to choose from. Today my teenage children can access almost any station on earth—if they choose to listen to radio at all, that is. They consume radio in ways that would have been unimaginable to me as a teenager. I start with those reflections because they remind us that change in the media landscape is not new. What is new is the speed and scale of the disruption we now face, and the reality that the future of local journalism is genuinely at risk if we choose not to protect it. The consolidation of power among the world’s tech giants and the unprecedented influence they hold over what information we see is deeply troubling. They extract extraordinary profits, while Governments and communities are left to face the democratic and social consequences of their decisions. The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee’s “The future of news” report warned that, “the period of having informed citizens with a shared understanding of facts is not inevitable and may not endure”, and it is right. Recent legislation has helped. The Media Act 2024 gives broadcasters clarity. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 begins to address imbalances between publishers and platforms. The Online Safety Act 2023 is a great first step, but it will need constant attention to ensure it remains up to the task. It is clear that much more will be required. We might need better legislation to ensure that local journalism has a fighting chance in a world being reshaped by AI, which is already challenging how people access news. Too often AI is scraping journalists’ work without permission, payment or attribution. By serving up instant summaries of that material, it risks becoming the main gateway between readers and local information, using content it did not create and preventing those who did create it from earning a living or building the trusted relationships that sustain local reporting. One of the biggest missteps we made at the start of the age of social media and smartphones was to blindly follow the tech companies into the brave new digital future they were creating without proper oversight or guardrails. Let us not make the same mistake with AI. The upcoming BBC charter renewal is an opportunity to look again at how the BBC can support local news, rather than compete with it. The BBC is a vital institution and the local democracy reporting service shows the good it can do, but the move into local online news has created pressure for commercial services that rely on digital audiences to survive. In rural areas like mine, resilience has to be part of the conversation. When the BBC begins to ask whether it is time to switch off digital broadcasting because digital connectivity is almost universal, I would invite them to visit places such as Killin in my constituency, where residents are still waiting for FM radio to reach them—a technology first introduced by the BBC in the 1950s. Grassroots competition should not be feared. Many talented journalists who have faced redundancy are using platforms such as Substack to build genuinely local alternatives. They may well become the next generation of local media. The Government have a procurement role, too. Our advertising and procurement choices should reward those who are genuinely investing in local reporting—yet that commitment is not always clear. Reach’s recent redundancies, including that of a Stirling Observer reporter with nearly 30 years of experience, and STV’s shocking plans for significant redundancies in the north of Scotland show how fragile the ecosystem has become. Public money should support organisations that maintain real journalistic capacity, whether that is a long-standing local title rooted in its community or an experienced local journalist building a new platform. A healthy, sustainable and independent local media sector is not a luxury; it is part of the democratic infrastructure of our country. I welcome the Government’s plans for a local media strategy and would be grateful if the Minister could update us on how that work is developing. We should support and invest in local media. If we lose it, we will miss it more than we can ever imagine.

• 26 Nov 2025 · Skills, Development and Training: Forth Valley · Hansard source

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  5. What discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on skills, development and training for the Forth valley area.

• 26 Nov 2025 · Skills, Development and Training: Forth Valley · Hansard source

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  Years of SNP underfunding have pushed Forth Valley college into financial crisis. Just when we needed to deliver skills for Stirling’s film studio, the Grangemouth transition, and shipbuilding and defence in the Forth and Clyde, the Alloa campus faces closure. Does the Secretary of State agree that the SNP is undermining Scotland’s future by neglecting the institutions that could drive growth? Does he also agree that Scotland needs a Labour Government, with Anas Sarwar, to rebuild our colleges and our skills base?

• 18 Nov 2025 · ExxonMobil: Mossmorran · Hansard source

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  Does this decision not just underline the urgent need for a robust industrial strategy in Scotland that protects jobs, strengthens the supply chain and ensures a manufacturing basis that is fit for the future?

• 11 Nov 2025 · BBC Leadership · Hansard source

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  We have heard an awful lot today about the professionalism of the journalists at the BBC, and I wholeheartedly agree with that, but there are less of them now than there were last year and we hear that the BBC is in the fight of its life across a whole number of fronts. Well, when you are in a fight across multiple fronts, it seems odd to send some of your best fighters home, but that is what is happening to our journalists where there are less of them in our newsrooms. Does the Secretary of State agree that journalism, delivered free from fear or favour, costs money—and that it costs a lot of money to do it really well? Does she also agree that delivering that has to be at the centre of gravity for the BBC now and in the future, and that how we protect journalism and resource it properly has to be at the heart of the charter review?

• 11 Nov 2025 · Remembrance Day: Armed Forces · Hansard source

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  On Sunday, I was at the war memorial in Stirling city centre to lay a wreath and to reflect. Stirling’s memorial was completed in 1922. Six hundred and ninety-two names were recorded on the monument that first year, and behind every name was a story of a life lived and a life given to war. I want to talk about three of those names today, but I want to start with a woman who I have no doubt was in the crowd the day the memorial was unveiled. Her name was Margaret Fleming. Margaret and her husband, John, lived in Stirling. Margaret worked in a local grocer’s shop and John was a sailor—a stoker on a steamship—who travelled the world’s oceans for months at a time, leaving Margaret to raise their family, including their sons Thomas and Martin. When war was declared, the Fleming men, like so many in every town and village across the land, answered the call to serve. John joined the merchant navy, Martin joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and Thomas joined the Black Watch. On each of the days the men in her life left for war, I suspect Margaret would have helped them to pack, prepared a packed lunch and walked them to the railway station. I think she would have walked slowly. As a parent, I know I would. In autumn 1914, the first of five battles of the war in Flanders took place near the town of Ypres, which stood between the advancing Germans and the channel ports—a vital line that the allies could not afford to lose. Eight thousand soldiers were killed in that battle, with nearly 30,000 wounded and more than 10,000 missing. Along with the letters she would have craved, there was one method of communication Margaret would have dreaded receiving: a telegram. Among the telegrams that arrived in family homes across Britain that month, one would have found its way to Bank Street in Stirling, telling Margaret that her son Thomas had fallen on 27 October and been buried near where he died. A second telegram would arrive three years later. Margaret’s husband, John, was serving on the steamship Batoum, carrying vital supplies across the Atlantic between the USA and Ireland. John was a donkeyman, working the small engine that pumped water from the bowels of the ship. It was a hot, hard and dangerous job. On 19 June 1917, the Batoum was less than six miles from home waters; the crew could see the lighthouse at Fastnet Rock—a beacon of safety after a 4,000-mile voyage—but they never saw the German U-boat or the torpedo that struck the ship. Forty-one of the forty-two members of crew survived. The only man lost that day was John, who stayed to tend to his engine, pumping water from the sinking ship to buy his comrades time to escape. In 1918, just three months before the guns finally fell silent, a third telegram arrived. In the last months of the war, both sides threw everything they had into one final push and one million men were lost—80,000 fell in August alone. One of them was Martin Fleming, who was killed in Flanders on 10 August 1918. He was 20 years old. Margaret had lost her husband, her oldest son and her youngest son. For those gathered at the memorial that first year, it was a deeply personal experience. For each of the parents, wives and children, each name recorded was a son, a father, a husband and a friend; all would have been known personally to someone in the crowd. The ongoing sacrifice of the families who were left behind by the devastation of war is more quietly marked than the sacrifice of the soldiers who died in the conflict, but we must remember both the lives lost in war and the lives lived on with the pain of loss to war. At the unveiling in Stirling, Margaret would have stood before the memorial bearing the names of her husband and sons—three men she had loved and lost to war—their names cast in bronze, quietly carrying both the weight of her sorrow and the endurance of her love. As the years pass, we no longer know their faces or hear their voices, yet we can still speak their names and wonder who they were, how they lived and what they dreamed of, and in that wondering—in the act of remembrance—we keep them present in the life of our communities today. Margaret Fleming’s name is not recorded on Stirling’s war memorial, but it will now be recorded on the record of this place. At the unveiling, Stirling’s provost spoke of his mingled feelings of grief and pride. Time dampens grief, yet deepens pride. It is with that in mind that I say with my heart full of peace, full of hope and full of love that we will remember them.

• 23 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  For 17 years, the Stirling Observer has run its “Give a Gift” appeal, rallying big-hearted people, businesses, schools and community groups to make sure no child wakes up on Christmas morning without a present to unwrap. This year’s appeal launched this week. Will the Leader of the House join me in thanking the Stirling Observer —and especially the brilliant and tireless Kaiya Marjoribanks, who has driven this appeal from day one—and consider making time for a debate on the vital role local newspapers play in strengthening our democracy and the communities we all serve?

• 22 Oct 2025 · Devolution in Scotland · Hansard source

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  When the Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999, there was an expectation that devolution would not stop at Holyrood, but would build stronger systems of local government. Donald Dewar put it best in his first speech: “A Scottish Parliament. Not an end: a means to greater ends.” We should celebrate Holyrood’s achievements over the past 25 years, but we must also face a truth: devolution has stalled or even gone backwards when it comes to local government. The first phase moved power from London to Edinburgh, but the second phase—transferring power from Holyrood to our local communities—never came. Instead, powers have been stripped away. Business rates, water, further education, police, fire and local enterprise were all once local responsibilities that have now been centralised. The principle of devolution is simple: the best decisions are made closest to the people affected by those decisions, yet in Edinburgh we have a Government run by the Scottish National party, and no one could accuse it of being the Scottish local party. Before I came here, I was the leader of Stirling council. About 80% of our budget came from a Scottish Government grant, with the rest from council tax, which is the only fiscal lever left to councils. It should be set locally, but for most of the last 18 years the SNP Government have frozen or capped it. Arguments for and against tax rises should be made in town halls, not dictated from Holyrood. For devolution to work there must be respect between different levels of government. I welcome efforts by the UK Government to reset that relationship. I only wish the Scottish Government would show the same respect to local authorities. Meanwhile, England has raced ahead. Metro mayors and combined authorities are transforming the landscape. We have seen the next step in English devolution in recent weeks and months, with exciting reforms pushing power outwards. By contrast, a tired SNP Government are pulling power inwards through quangos and direction from the centre.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Devolution in Scotland · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman has talked about the need for different legislatures to learn from each other. Ater 10 years of COSLA saying to the Scottish Government that funding for local government has been stripped to the bone, libraries are closing, swimming pools are closing, schools are underfunded, our teachers are at their wits’ end in the classroom, and the ones who want to be in the classroom cannot get a job because there is not enough money. What has his party learned from COSLA, after 10 years of its pleas for local government to be funded better?

• 22 Oct 2025 · Devolution in Scotland · Hansard source

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  I completely agree—that goes back to what I was saying. Donald Dewar said: “A Scottish Parliament. Not an end: a means to greater ends.” If we all remembered to think about the evolution of devolution, and strived to make it as good as it can be, we would all be doing the people of Scotland a service. The risk of divergence between Scottish devolution and English devolution is stark. Glasgow is the UK’s fourth largest city, yet without a metro mayor or combined authority, it has no mechanism to secure trailblazer deals, as Greater Manchester and the West Midlands have. If Glasgow performed at the level of its peers, Scotland’s GDP could rise by an amount equivalent to our entire oil and gas sector—that is the real prize of real devolution. Scotland’s eight cities, including Stirling, should be able to debate what greater devolution would mean for our economies and communities. Partnership requires honesty, however. The Verity House agreement promised “no surprises” but within months, Ministers imposed another national council tax freeze without consultation. That is not partnership; it is central direction. If we are serious about devolution, we must be serious about accountability. Audit Scotland and the National Audit Office should deepen collaboration. Joint funding streams must be scrutinised coherently. Public trust depends on transparency. Devolution was never meant to be a one-off event. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has long warned that Scotland is now one of the most centralised countries in Europe. While England powers ahead, our councils are squeezed, our communities feel remote from decision making, and our cities risk falling behind. What Scotland needs is a new phase of devolution: more fiscal autonomy for councils, genuine partnership with national Government, more powers for communities through development trusts, community councils and other bodies, and the option of combined authorities or mayors where local people want them.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Devolution in Scotland · Hansard source

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  rose—

• 4 Sept 2025 · Future of Terrestrial Television · Hansard source

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  I entirely agree that we must do all we can to protect digital terrestrial television for as long as it is needed. As a former radio presenter, I would argue that free radio could do with the same future protection. Colleagues have rightly made the case for the broadcasting medium; I want to make the case for the retailers, the engineers and the aerial installers—the people who deliver, set up and explain. My family has been in that line of work for nearly a century. My brother Michael runs Radio Music Store in Bannockburn, helped by Pam and Logan. He took over from our father, who retired last year. My father took over from his father in the ’70s, and my grandfather started the business in 1932, five years after the first BBC radio broadcasts came to Scotland. The store rented out its first television set in time for the very first TV broadcast in Scotland in March 1952. It was 7.30 pm, and people crowded around small, low-resolution screens to watch pictures of this place—the Houses of Parliament—and the River Thames, which were the first things to be seen. Only 2,730 television licences had been issued in Scotland at the time. By the 1980s, when I was a teenager helping out in the school holidays, televisions were everywhere. Rental remained popular because sets were costly and the analogue technology was forever blowing valves, tubes and circuits. But every town had engineers who could repair them. Most shops had backrooms that looked like laboratories, with people soldering components and bringing sets back to life. It was a skilled trade, common across the United Kingdom. Most of the businesses were small, family-run shops. Many were part of the Radio, Electrical and Television Retailers Association. Some were larger chains, but most were independents, rooted in their communities. Those communities were stronger for their presence. Today it is a different picture. Fewer retailers cover larger areas. Many are part of Euronics, a co-operative of independent retailers, my brother’s store among them. They are still embedded in their towns, but fewer in number and serving much larger areas. It is one thing to support the continued broadcasting of terrestrial signals, but what use is that if people cannot get hold of a television? What use is that if nobody is available to realign their aerial after a winter storm? What use is that if manufacturers insist a new set cannot be set up without connecting it to the internet first? My grandfather would have been horrified at how easily televisions worth hundreds of pounds are written off for want of a 50p fuse. Once upon a time, engineers repaired components. Now entire circuit boards are thrown away, as often are the televisions that they are in. Right-to-repair legislation has gone some way to address this, but where once we had a network of engineers in most towns making a living, now we have a handful of larger companies in urban areas and a patchwork of volunteer-run repair cafes. This is not just about nostalgia for a golden age of repair shops. It is about resilience. It is about making sure that older people, rural households and those without reliable broadband are not left behind. It is about ensuring that communities from Bannockburn to Bolton have someone nearby who can get them connected again when their set goes dark. Yes, let us protect terrestrial television broadcasting. But let us also support the ecosystem that makes it receivable: the shops, the engineers, the local support and the skills. Let us recognise that broadcasting also means receiving, and there are a lot of people needed to ensure that reception continues. Finally, a plea: shop local when you can because, like so much of the high street, you will miss it most when you need it and it is not there.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Hospitality Sector · Hansard source

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  In my constituency of Stirling and Strathallan, castles and scenery may draw tourists, but it is the people in our pubs, cafés, restaurants, clubs and hotels who make them feel welcome. In my constituency, we have no shortage of world-class heritage, picturesque rural communities, scenery, and pubs, restaurants and cafés. At Stirling castle, visitors can see the great kitchens that provided the hospitality to the court of many a Stuart monarch. After that, they can go to the Portcullis hotel or Stirling’s oldest pub, the Settle Inn, which was built in 1733. In Causewayhead, the Birds & Bees is nestled in the shadow of the Wallace monument. In Balmaha, we have the Oak Tree Inn on the shores of Loch Lomond. In Tyndrum, the Real Food Cafe and the wonderfully named Green Welly Stop are on the West Highland Way. Visitors to Bannockburn—where Robert the Bruce defeated the English—can go to the 1314 pub, the King Robert Hotel, the Borestone Bar, or the Tartan Arms, where the steak pie, in my opinion, is the best in Scotland. Out west to Gartmore is the Black Bull bar and restaurant, which was taken over by the community and is now run as a charity. The macaroni there is a treat. In Kippen, we have the Cross Keys pub and the Woodhouse farm shop and restaurant, which are great for a Sunday drive. The Buttercup café in Doune is wonderful for lunch. In Kinbuck, Andy and Kim Murray are breathing new life into the Cromlix House hotel, and, of course, we have the world-famous Gleneagles as well. In Fallin, a mining village, we have the Gothenburg—or simply the Goth—which is a community-run pub founded in 1911. It is one of the few remaining still running under the Gothenburg system with all the profits donated to the community. During the miners’ strikes in the 1980s, it hosted soup kitchens and supported miners’ strike funds. When the Opposition talk about their conversations with hospitality businesses, what they leave out is as telling as what they put in. Too often, they are not talking to or listening to the employees themselves. Those employees deserve the best employment rights and a fair wage for doing their job, which is why I am proud of this Government’s landmark Employment Rights Bill and our commitments on the living wage. I set out this roll-call of hospitality not just to show my pride in Stirling and Strathallan, but because I have had to cut out all of my other points as the speech time limit has been reducing. I also want to make a point that is often lost in these debates: for every venue that struggles—and there are venues struggling, including in my constituency—there are many more that are thriving, innovating and contributing to their communities. Let me end by offering my thanks to everybody working in hospitality in Stirling and Strathallan, and across the United Kingdom. They are doing a remarkable job, and our communities and our country are all the better for it.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Welfare Fraud · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister share my surprise that a Member of the party responsible for more than a decade of rising poverty, record benefit delays, and billions lost to fraud and error is now suddenly concerned about tackling that? Across the House, while we recognise the need to tackle fraud in our welfare system, we should also recognise the huge issue with tax avoidance and evasion—as recently highlighted by the Public Accounts Committee—which requires significant attention.

• 17 Jul 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Sometimes, when the puns keep coming, you just have to “Roll With It”. In my constituency, Braehead community garden is a remarkable 2-acre, community-led project where residents grow fruit and vegetables in raised beds and polytunnels. It also has an apiary, a workshop and a 30 kW solar array. It hosts pumpkin festivals and flower shows, and it was once called the UK’s “best community space” by the Society of Garden Designers. This year, it celebrates its 10th birthday. Just 2 miles away, in Fallin, a new community garden opened this year and is off to a strong start. Will the Leader of the House join me in thanking the remarkable volunteers at both projects for all that they do, and will she make time for a debate on the value of community gardens to wellbeing, food education and local life? I suspect that I know the answer to my next question: volunteers are now weeding, so will she join me to do a spot of weeding, in order to give them a break?

• 17 Jul 2025 · Strategy for Elections · Hansard source

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  In Scotland, where we have votes for 16 and 17-year-olds in council and Scottish Parliament elections, I have found that some of the most engaging, respectful and searching questions have come from those in that age group, whereas in general elections a 16 or 17-year-old’s response is often, “I’ll go and see if my mum or dad are in”, or occasionally, “My dad’s told me to tell you that he’s not in.” Given how respectful and engaged 16 and 17-year-olds are, does the Minister agree that they should have the right to express that engagement at the ballot box?

• 16 Jul 2025 · Credit Unions · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch (Katrina Murray) on securing this important debate. At a time when we are all looking for practical ways to support our communities, a simple but powerful action stands out to me in relation to credit unions: for public bodies to support credit unions not just by promoting them, but by banking with them. When I was leader of Stirling council, I saw at first hand how prudent financial management rightly led councils to place the bulk of their reserves with established banks and large institutions. That approach is, of course, sound and responsible, but allocating even a very small proportion of those funds—small by council standards—to a credit union could have a disproportionately positive impact on the credit union and the community it serves. Credit unions are community-based, member-owned financial institutions that offer affordable loans, promote savings and provide an ethical alternative to high-cost lenders. I have seen their real-world impact in my constituency, where they help families to avoid exploitative borrowing, build resilience and stay afloat during hard times. However, many credit unions operate at the margins of the financial system and struggle to scale. Local authority deposits, even modest ones, would help with the stability and capital that credit unions need to grow, and would send a powerful signal to the public that credit unions are valued, supported and used by institutions. Depositing local authority funds in a credit union could also deliver modest returns while maintaining strong safeguards for public funds, because deposits are protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. It would be a secure, responsible option that also delivered social value. Every pound placed in a credit union is a pound that can be recycled into low-interest loans for local people and small businesses. The money does not disappear into a distant financial centre; it stays local and supports the very communities that we are elected to serve. This approach would align with many local authorities’ wider goals: it would help to tackle poverty, support inclusive economic development and contribute to building community wealth. It would also align with wider goals across the public sector, including in the UK Government. I urge the Minister to consider what more central Government can do to overcome the barriers to this practice in the public sector and by local authorities, including through updated guidance, best practice examples and formal recognition of the social value that local authority deposits in credit unions can generate. We need to look at the barriers to public bodies placing money in credit unions without changing the broader scope of member ownership. Even very modest deposits in credit unions—modest by departmental or council standards—can work harder and go further when invested locally. By supporting credit unions, we invest in people’s lives, in communities and in the resilience of our local economies.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Winter Fuel Payment: Northern Ireland · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister agree that it is only because of the Barnett formula and a Labour Government that Scotland—including communities in Stirling and Strathallan—now has record funding of £50 billion this year, and it is deeply concerning that the SNP Government in Scotland have no clear plan to invest this funding properly in Scotland’s NHS, Scotland’s schools and Scotland’s local services?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The programme launch for this year’s Bloody Scotland—the country’s leading crime writing festival—took place at the Golden Lion hotel in Stirling. It is the 13th annual festival and this year includes events programmed by Scotland’s king of crime writing, Sir Ian Rankin, and takes place on the weekend of 12 to 14 September. Will the Leader of the House make time for a debate on the success of the UK’s incredibly talented crime writers, many of whom will be in Stirling in September, and will she join me at one of the many excellent events? Tickets are on sale now!

• 19 Jun 2025 · Social Mobility: Careers Education · Hansard source

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  For too many people, the belief that intelligence, hard work and perseverance will be rewarded no longer holds true. The ladder of opportunity that once allowed previous generations to climb to a better future is now harder to reach and sometimes even harder to ascend. This is not just a personal frustration; it is a societal warning sign. When talented, hardworking individuals feel stuck, and when they see that no matter what they do they will not achieve what their parents did, we are not only wasting potential; we are eroding trust in our economic system. Social mobility must not be viewed as a bonus only applicable to the good times. It is the foundation of a fair and functioning society. Without it, resentment grows, division deepens, and our social fabric begins to fray. First and foremost, we must recognise the pivotal role that our education system, our schools and our teachers play. Education remains the single most powerful engine of mobility. Great teachers do not just pass on knowledge; they ignite ambition, unlock potential and open doors that otherwise remain shut. But teachers cannot do this alone. They need investment, support and the resources to reach every child, not just the ones already on a path to success. Part of that support must include a renewed focus on careers education. For too many people, particularly those from lower-income households, the guidance that they need to navigate future pathways is patchy at best and absent at worst. Careers education bridges the gap between parental knowledge and wider opportunity, and it is often the only structured support for those who lack the social capital to network their way into the world of work. Beyond the school gates, as I have discussed before, our youth services must be at the heart of the solution. Youth workers, clubs and community programmes are often the safety net, and sometimes the springboard, for young people who need extra support. They provide mentoring, build confidence, offer practical life skills and connect young people to opportunities they might not otherwise see. When I look at youth services across my constituency, from local authority-funded provision to sports and community clubs, I see a patchwork of services funded from a variety of pots of money. I call on the SNP Scottish Government, if they are serious about equity and opportunity, to fund properly our local councils and commit to long-term support for youth services. At a national level, I put on the record my appreciation for the work done by the Co-op and Demos for their “The Opportunity Effect” paper. There is clearly a need for better workplace practices to help address the lack of social mobility within our workplaces today, and the paper provides a number of solutions that I hope will receive Government attention. Careers education must be at the very heart of any strategy to restore social mobility in this country. It is the bridge between potential and opportunity; between what young people dream of becoming and the pathways that can make those dreams come true. Getting careers education right is key to success. Careers education is not a luxury; it is a necessity.

• 19 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T5. United Auctions in my constituency has recently become the UK’s first employee-owned livestock auctioneer. Will the Secretary of State commit to doing more to encourage employee ownership models as a great option for rural businesses that want to thrive, attract new talent and remain rooted in the communities that they serve? Will he also congratulate the new owners?

• 18 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q12. In Scotland, over 10,000 children are stuck in temporary accommodation, including many in my constituency. Too many families face soaring rents, long waiting lists and dwindling options. It is just one of so many policy failings—we are all losing count and losing patience—as public confidence in the SNP’s ability to govern collapses. What advice does the Deputy Prime Minister have for the SNP Government as they continue to preside over a chronic failure to invest in the social and affordable housing that Scotland desperately needs?

• 17 Jun 2025 · Mental Health Services: Staffing in Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  The SNP has cut mental health services across Scotland, while failing to recruit the necessary workforce in rural communities such as those in Stirling and Strathallan. What assessment has the Department made of how devolved mismanagement of mental health services is affecting outcomes for patients in rural Scotland?

• 10 Jun 2025 · Fossil Fuels · Hansard source

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  A very happy birthday to you, Mr Speaker. Given the enormous potential for renewable energy generation across Scotland, including in my constituency, does the Minister recognise that accelerating community-owned energy projects and, crucially, improving local transmission infrastructure would not only reduce fossil fuel reliance, but deliver direct economic benefits to local people?

• 15 May 2025 · Youth Services · Hansard source

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  I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, and I thank him for recognising Billy Bremner—a very good Stirling man. As I was saying, many projects rely on a patchwork of short-term funding, but that reliance points to a deeper problem: the retreat of local government, especially under the SNP Government in Holyrood, who have delivered a real-terms cut of over 15% to core budgets for local authorities. That makes it near impossible to deliver on statutory obligations, let alone expand services for the future. When youth services are cut, the impact is not abstract. We see it in worsening mental health, rising youth crime and lost opportunities. We know what works. Youth services build confidence, boost attainment, improve wellbeing and support employability, and those are generational investments, not optional extras. That is why I welcome the UK Labour Government’s commitment to embedding youth services alongside mental health and careers support in communities. However, Westminster action only goes so far when Holyrood is pulling in the opposite direction. If the SNP is serious about equity and opportunity, it must properly fund councils and commit to long-term support for youth services. This is not just about budgets; it is about hope, and acting on our belief in the potential of every young person.