Tommy Sheppard focusing on his flock

By Phyllis Stephen

A chat with Tommy Sheppard MP is always a good thing to do. His view of the world may be focused through an SNP lens, but his answers are always disarmingly frank for a politician.

His prime responsibility in the last few months has been to his family and his constituents. He has been in Edinburgh since March, taking part in virtual sessions at Westminster where MPs can scrutinise but not take part in debates. These have been a little frustrating for him, as he has had only two minutes to speak and pose a question for the Leader of the House, Jacob Rees-Mogg. He has widely criticised Mr Rees-Mogg for simply not answering his questions directly. His constituency caseload has increased since the beginning of the lockdown, and like everyone else his office has been closed.

He explained that his constituency casework was up by 50% on last year, mostly to do with coronavirus, or people falling through the gaps in the various government schemes.

I asked if Tommy thinks it is still worth turning up at Westminster in whatever form since the General Election last year? He replied:

"Well, things changed dramatically in December 2019. Up until then, the SNP group at Westminster was very much punching above its weight, because things were so volatile and there was there was not really a government majority, so we were able to defeat it on quite a lot of things, particularly to do with the Brexit timetable.

“And then we went from that to us doing really well in the election and our group going up from 35 to 48. But paradoxically, having much less power and influence in the parliamentary arithmetic after that election, because Boris Johnson got back with a pretty decent majority.

“I see less reason to be diligent and go over the top in terms of our parliamentary interventions in the chamber, because that process doesn't offer us as much anymore. We can do a lot more in terms of advocating in our constituencies by campaigning and trying to use other platforms, particularly the media, to raise matters of public concern, whether they be the big stuff about the future of Scotland or the little stuff that affects many, many individuals.”

Mr Rees-Mogg regularly quotes the figure of £4.6 billion at him in any answer. This is the amount that Scotland has had under the Barnett Consequentials (a way of providing the same level of financial support to Scotland as in England for certain things).

Tommy said: “Well, you know, we are still part of the United Kingdom. So it would be odd, wouldn't it, if we didn't get the same sort of support as other parts of the United Kingdom, whilst we're there?

"Our concern is actually we're doing proportionally worse, than other parts of the United Kingdom. And I keep trying to explain to Jacob Rees-Mogg and to others that we're not so much arguing about the total quantum of money, but about the financial powers available to the government to use that money and to make other decisions that can make it work.

“For example if you look at the big arts rescue package which was announced just before the start of the summer recess. They said it was £1.8 billion and that Scotland would get £97 million.

"Now you don’t have to be a mathematical genius to work out that this is not a proportionate share. It is about 5% whereas our population is about 9%. In England the money can be used to repurpose expenditure, allowing capital sums to be transferred to revenue operations. That is the sort of thing we just don’t have the authority to do in Scotland, certainly not on the same scale.” And so what of the future? Tommy said: “Usually Parliament would come back in the second week of September. Just for a few weeks and then there'll be another break for the conference season, as they call it, where everyone went off to the seaside to discuss politics. So that's all changed. We're coming back right at the beginning of September this time and there's no further breaks of any kind. The intention is to press right through to Christmas with a legislative session, which is going to be quite heavy, we think, in terms of what the government wants to get done."

No doubt he will continue to use his two minutes as forcefully as he can from his Edinburgh living room.