Libdems call for new minister dedicated to Covid recovery in next Scottish Government
The next Scottish Government should have a minister dedicated to dealing with the country’s coronavirus recovery, the Liberal Democrats have said.
Leader Willie Rennie said a Recovery First Secretary should be part of the next administration at Holyrood.
He said the post would replace that of Deputy First Minister, and would mean a senior politician would be tasked specifically with working on the recovery across all spheres of government.
While the SNP is certain to emerge from next week’s election as the largest party at Holyrood, Mr Rennie said electing more Liberal Democrats would “force the Government to put recovery first and ditch the wasteful independence plans”.
He insisted: “Liberal Democrats offer a choice at this election to appoint a Recovery First Secretary with a mission to steer the health, education and jobs through to recovery.
“The alternative is a constitution minister under the SNP who will spend their time on plans for a divisive referendum.
“The Liberal Democrat Recovery First Secretary will use the civil service expertise currently earmarked by the SNP to write their replacement 670-page white paper on independence.
“We know that top civil servants will be used to draw up the plan for independence. They will be skilled negotiators who will have to sort out the arguments between the different factions of the nationalists about the currency, central bank and whether to rejoin the EU.
“This talent should be used instead to plan a recovery that balances the needs of the health service, education and business.
“It is bad enough that the SNP spent valuable time in the last year writing their independence legislation.
“It will be much worse if they waste precious moments after the election on independence rather than recovery.”
Elsewhere, the Scottish Greens pledged to build on free bus travel to provide more opportunities for young people in the next Parliament.
Free bus travel for everyone under 22 will be introduced this year as a result of budget wins by the Greens in the last parliamentary term.
The party is now pushing for free travel for rail and ferries too, as well as increasing funding for colleges so they can expand bursaries for 16 and 17-yearolds and reintroduce parttime courses.
The Greens have also pledged to increase support for apprenticeships and ensure they pay at least the living wage, regardless of age.
Co-leader Patrick Harvie said: “Free bus travel for young people is a transformational policy, not just for tackling household poverty and the climate emergency, but also for opening up opportunities for young people to travel and study.
“The Scottish Greens are determined to build on that, so that public transport reaches communities it currently does not, and we are committed to delivering the college places and apprenticeships young people will need that public transport to get to.”
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar insisted only a vote for his party would help protect Scotland’s public services, and accused the SNP of slashing council funding.