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  • Douglas Ross – 2023 Speech at Conservative Party Conference

    Douglas Ross – 2023 Speech at Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, in Manchester on 1 October 2023.

    Thank you, Conference.

    It is fantastic to speak to this gathering of the Conservative AND Unionist Party.

    We in this hall are all Unionists by definition.

    It is in our party’s DNA.

    To be a Conservative is to be a Unionist.

    Unlike our opponents, Conservatives don’t apologise for being British, we embrace it.

    We celebrate our common history and heritage and look forward to the shared future that Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland will continue to build together.

    Conference, I know that Rishi Sunak and this UK Conservative and Unionist Government are taking the long-term decisions to build a brighter future for Scotland and the whole of the United Kingdom.

    I was with our Prime Minister in Aberdeenshire in the summer – when he announced over 100 new oil and gas licences in the North Sea.

    And gave the go-ahead to a new carbon capture cluster facility in Peterhead.

    These announcements will strengthen energy security for the whole of the UK.

    But they will also secure tens of thousands of skilled Scottish jobs.

    Jobs that Labour and the SNP would put on the scrapheap as soon as possible to appease green extremists like Just Stop Oil.

    Well, the last thing that Scotland needs is a Miliband millstone round our neck.

    This Conservative and Unionist Party will never abandon North Sea workers, like Keir Starmer would.

    We are now the only party you can trust to stand up for Scotland’s oil.

    And these announcements are just one part of what the Conservatives are delivering for Scotland.

    From freeports to spaceports, roads to ferries, supercomputers to agriculture technology.

    We are investing in projects that will drive growth across our whole country, secure and create Scottish jobs and businesses and strengthen the essential contribution Scotland makes to our United Kingdom.

    Well conference, it has been a pretty interesting year in Scottish politics.

    I have more than a few things to update you on since we last met.

    In fact, I am struggling on where to begin….

    Well Nicola Sturgeon is gone.

    Can I repeat that for those at the back – Nicola Sturgeon is gone.

    For years we were told that she was unstoppable.

    That she could, apparently, do no wrong.

    How many times did the media proclaim that Scotland was on the cusp of independence under her leadership?

    Or that she would wipe out the Tories.

    Well, I can proudly say that her career lies in tatters, and we – conference – are still here.

    It was our party – the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party – that was the constant thorn in her side.

    We stopped the SNP from winning a majority in election after election.

    We fought her dangerous gender reform bill – which, let’s not forget conference, was backed at each stage by Labour.

    And we stood up to Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for a second independence referendum every step of the way.

    Now, since she left, the SNP have been having some difficulties.

    A police investigation into party finances.

    The luxury campervan seized.

    And Humza Yousaf as leader.

    The best the SNP now have to offer is a poor Nicola Sturgeon tribute act.

    But we cannot be complacent.

    His government are already spending millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on promoting independence.

    And Humza Yousaf is treating next year’s election as a proxy referendum.

    Nicola Sturgeon may have quit but the SNP haven’t gone away.

    They are down but far from out.

    They are just as dangerous to the future of our country as they have ever been.

    We still need to fight for every vote, to win as many seats as possible.

    Because next year we can deal a fatal blow to the campaign for independence.

    We can ensure the nationalists fall short again and put Humza Yousaf’s Government on notice.

    And in so many seats only the Scottish Conservatives can beat the SNP.

    Conference, this Conservative UK Government delivers for Scotland.

    And on energy, financial services, food & drink, tourism and so much more Scotland delivers for the whole of the UK.

    If we remove the SNP, if we can kick them out of power in every part of our nation, Scotland can finally move on from the independence neverendum

    And we can build a stronger, more prosperous United Kingdom together.

    Now to speak more on strengthening our country, let’s welcome to the stage the man who puts Scotland at the heart of the UK Government.

    The scourge of SNP globetrotting.

    The binman for the Greens’ recycling scheme.

    The defender of women’s rights.

    My friend, our Scottish Secretary, Alister Jack.

  • Douglas Ross – 2023 Speech on Lifeboat Services – Search and Rescue

    Douglas Ross – 2023 Speech on Lifeboat Services – Search and Rescue

    The speech made by Douglas Ross, the Conservative MP for Moray, in Westminster Hall, the House of Commons, on 10 January 2023.

    It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster) on securing today’s important debate. The constituency that I represent, Moray, is proud and privileged to have both an RNLI facility at Buckie and an independent lifeboat support, the Moray Inshore Rescue Organisation, at Findhorn. I shall touch on both in today’s debate.

    Let me begin, as others have, by paying tribute to the remarkable work of our search and rescue services in Scotland. As others have said, across our British coastline, the RNLI and its army of volunteers have served our great nation since 1824. It is a charity that is close to my heart and the hearts of many of my constituents in Moray. Being mainly staffed by volunteers, the RNLI relies heavily on the good will of British people to fund its rescue services. Thanks to the efforts and generosity of people across the country, there are over 230 operational lifeboat stations, which respond on average to 24 call-outs every day. As the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said, that support has saved over 143,000 lives since the RNLI’s inception.

    Mr Gregory Campbell

    Does the hon. Member agree that one of the best ways we can demonstrate our support is, as he is doing, to maximise and highlight the issue, including in the local media, and to supply all independent and RNLI lifeboats with the best possible equipment for saving lives?

    Douglas Ross

    I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman’s comments. There is a very good publicity system around the RNLI in Buckie. In fact, the sub-editor of the local paper is a member of the RNLI at Buckie, which always gets good front-page coverage in the Banffshire Advertiser and other papers. The point on equipment is well made, and the Minister will have heard it.

    The coastal communities that I represent across Moray simply could not imagine not having the support of the brave men and women who dedicate their lives to rescuing those in peril at sea. The RNLI and our independent lifeboats across Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom deserve our full support, and it is vital and fitting that we have a platform in Parliament today to give them that recognition.

    Jamie Stone

    The hon. Member’s constituency faces mine across the Moray firth, which is named after his constituency, but it really should be named after mine—but that is not the point. In an emergency, it is a fact that the lifeboats in the hon. Member’s constituency can, if necessary, go out in the Moray firth and help out the communities in my constituency. I highlight the inter-connected nature of the service all over Scotland and the United Kingdom.

    Douglas Ross

    I agree with almost everything the hon. Gentleman said, but calling it the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross firth, rather than the Moray firth, might be a bit long-winded for some—but his points are absolutely right.

    Let me focus on Moray and Buckie. Lifeboats have been launching into the waters of the Moray firth from Buckie for over 145 years, and crews and volunteers there have rightly been honoured with numerous awards. I have mentioned the late, great Adam Robertson in this Chamber in the past. He was a Moray Council employee with whom I worked closely in my time as a Moray councillor, but he dedicated his voluntary work throughout his life to RNLI Buckie, and his family has continued that trend since his sad death. Most recently, Anne Scott, RNLI Buckie’s lifeboat operations manager, received a special award that recognised her 20 years of professional service. Anne retired from the RNLI in 2021, and immediately after retirement became a volunteer. That shows the dedication of those who support our lifeboat services. It is absolutely right that Anne was given that award. When Anne received the award, RNLI Buckie’s Davie Grant said:

    “We call Anne the lady who launches”

    because she “hits the big button” as the lifeboats speed out to save people. Pillars such as Anne and Adam demonstrate not only the timeless contribution of the RNLI to rescue services and the support given by those volunteers, but the overwhelming contribution of lifeboat services to our local coastal communities.

    Let me quickly move on to independent lifeboat services. Last year, I was honoured and delighted to support my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall) in his launch of the National Independent Lifeboat Association, which is a new charity that will assist the UK’s independent lifeboats in ensuring the preservation of life on the water. I am proud that one of its founding members is the Moray Inshore Rescue Organisation, which is in my constituency. Based at Findhorn, it is, as the hon. Member for Strangford said, one of 46 established independent lifeboat services manned by unpaid volunteers, and does not receive any funding from the RNLI. First formed in July 2005, it is a proud recipient of the Queen’s award for voluntary service and does outstanding work from its base at Findhorn.

    At the launch, MIRO’s chairman, John Low, said:

    “We are a small organisation working locally with larger organisations, such as UK Coastguard, RNLI, police and fire services, to provide vital lifesaving services. It makes sense to join the new National Independent Lifeboat Association to collaborate and share practice with colleagues in similar small organisations around the country. We also hope that in the future there will be financial benefits such as accessing funding and services such as insurance and training.”

    Those are important, which is why MIRO and others have joined the collaborative approach suggested by my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes. It is right that we have the opportunity in Parliament today to highlight that and, as others have done, to thank both those in the RNLI and our independent lifeboat services for the amazing work they do, day in, day out.

  • Douglas Ross – 2022 Speech on Alcohol Duty

    Douglas Ross – 2022 Speech on Alcohol Duty

    The speech made by Douglas Ross, the Conservative MP for Moray, in the House of Commons on 19 December 2022.

    Douglas Ross (Moray) (Con)

    It is encouraging to hear support from across the House for these duty reforms, which were originally announced as a manifesto commitment at Roseisle distillery in my constituency. Of course, Moray is home to more Scotch whisky distilleries than any other constituency in the House. [Interruption.] As my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart) says, many are very good ones. I have been pressing both the Chancellor and the Prime Minister to maintain the freeze on duty for Scotch whisky for as long as possible, which is important for the entire industry and the jobs that rely on it. Will the Exchequer Secretary take on board what the Father of the House said? When it comes to the Budget in March, will the Government listen to the industry, which has time after time proven wrong Treasury officials who predicted that an increase in duty would increase revenue to the Treasury? In fact, a freeze in duty increases revenue to the Treasury and it would be welcome to see that continuing.

    James Cartlidge

    I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend, who speaks with great knowledge on these matters. He has been a consistent champion for the Scotch whisky industry, standing up for it in this place, whether on tariffs or duties. I know that he was lobbying the Chancellor and the Prime Minster to continue the freeze, so I hope that he is pleased with the result. On what happens going forward, I will engage with the Scotch whisky industry and indeed all the other alcohol sectors. The clear point is that the extension of the freeze is good news for every single sector and I hope that colleagues welcome that.

  • Douglas Ross – 2022 Speech on Scotland’s Future

    Douglas Ross – 2022 Speech on Scotland’s Future

    The speech made by Douglas Ross, the Conservative MP for Moray, in the House of Commons on 14 December 2022.

    It is a pleasure to be in this Chamber to be a representative of Scottish constituents and to debate issues of importance to the people of Scotland. It is just sad that that is not what we are doing today.

    Alan Brown

    I am intervening just to ask why the hon. Member has turned up. He does not come here that often, so why is he down here complaining about the debate he is taking part in? [Hon. Members: “Touché!”]

    Douglas Ross

    Well, it is not really. We have seen despicable behaviour from SNP Members throughout this debate. The fact that they have already been warned by you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for their behaviour today just shows that this is a game. The shadow Scottish Secretary, the hon. Member for Edinburgh South (Ian Murray), was right: this is all a game for them. They think this is fun. [Laughter.] The hon. Member for Edinburgh East (Tommy Sheppard), who led this debate, is laughing. I do not find anything funny in the fact that hours of parliamentary debating time here in the UK Parliament are being dedicated to the separatist cause, not to Scotland’s cause. The hon. Gentleman said that he spoke about immigration, energy and the NHS. Yes, he did, for 30 seconds. For the remainder of his 30-minute speech, it was all about division, all about separation, all about dividing Scotland all over again. I wonder why he did not want to speak more about health. Was it because this week we heard that cancer waiting times in Scotland are at their worst ever level? [Interruption.] SNP Members are sighing. They barrack us for raising the issues. The hon. Gentleman mentioned the NHS, but he did not want to mention cancer waiting times in Scotland.

    Last week, I raised the issue in the Scottish Parliament and the case of someone who waited almost two years from diagnosis to starting treatment for cancer in Scotland. Why would that not be an important issue for us to debate in this Parliament? Today in Moray we have finally had a report from NHS Grampian on—[Interruption.] If SNP Members are going to speak over me when I am speaking about an issue—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Argyll and Bute (Brendan O’Hara) says “Diddums.” Say that to the Moray mums who have to travel across the A96 from Elgin to Aberdeen or Inverness in labour in the back of an ambulance. The proposal made today by NHS Grampian says that that could continue for up to nine years. We were first told that it would be a temporary downgrade for a year until the reintroduction of full, consultant-led maternity services in Moray. The hon. Gentleman says “Diddums.” I say “Shame on you.”

    Brendan O’Hara (Argyll and Bute) (SNP)

    Perhaps it is because the hon. Gentleman has so many jobs that he has forgotten which Parliament he is in. If he wants to make that argument, he should go to the Scottish Parliament where he is also a Member. This is an Opposition day debate on the transfer of powers under a section 30 order and holding a referendum on Scottish independence. Perhaps he should address that issue, instead of the grievance that he is sharing with us. Why does he not address the issue at stake—

    Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)

    Order. The intervention is a little long.

    Douglas Ross

    So it is a grievance for a Member of Parliament to raise an issue on behalf of pregnant mums and families in Moray who are struggling. SNP Members say that we cannot mention the NHS here. Well, the SNP spokesperson who introduced the debate mentioned the NHS and, if I remember correctly, the leader of the SNP raised it with the Prime Minister at PMQs today. They are happy to speak about the NHS when it suits their argument, but they are not happy to speak about record cancer waiting times or Moray mums struggling for almost a decade with substandard maternity services—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Livingston (Hannah Bardell) waves that away. I wish I could wave away the concerns of my constituents, but I cannot, and they will be disappointed and frankly insulted by the responses from the SNP today.

    Hannah Bardell

    Nobody on the SNP Benches seeks to insult the hon. Gentleman’s constituents. All of the issues he raises are serious, but the reality is that we have limited powers in Scotland, and we spend our limited budget cleaning up the mess that his Government make and filling the black holes that they have created. If we had independence and the full powers that it would bring, we would be able to do more.

    Douglas Ross

    Health is fully devolved to the SNP Scottish Government, and they have a record block grant from the UK Government. But the SNP Government are wasting money hand over fist, and that is why we have record cancer waiting times in Scotland. Delayed discharges are at record levels, although the SNP told us it would get rid of delayed discharges eight years ago.

    Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)

    Will the hon. Gentleman confirm that immigration is not devolved to Scotland, and that in leaving the EU because of his Government’s hard Brexit, we are no longer able to recruit people from Europe to the NHS as we did before? That is one of the levers. If he is not happy with how the health service is being run, he could devolve powers over immigration to allow us to do that.

    Douglas Ross

    I have seen how the SNP fails when it gets extra powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament, so I do not want to see it have any more, because the people of Scotland suffer. I am mentioning these points about health and all the other issues we could debate in here because they are of importance to people right across Scotland. We heard not a single word from those on the SNP Front Bench about ferries, although I heard about them from the Minister and the shadow Secretary of State. Why would the SNP not want to speak about ferries and its dismal failure to deliver those lifeline services to our island communities? Why would the SNP not want to speak about education in Scotland, which, as others have said, was once Nicola Sturgeon’s No. 1 priority but where there is now a dismal performance under the SNP? Why have we not heard from SNP Members about Scotland’s drug deaths shame? I lead the Opposition party in the Scottish Parliament and I would love to take control of debating time there to introduce a Bill for a right to recovery to help people who are struggling and losing their lives in record numbers—numbers that have gone up year after year. There is a Bill ready there and if I get the opportunity to have debating time in the Scottish Parliament and push something through, I would use it to do something good: to save lives. What we get here in the UK Parliament from SNP Members is timewasting; they are literally wasting the time where they could be focusing on issues of importance to the people of Scotland. So I am sorry that we have had to debate this today and that the SNP want to use all its time to stir up the division all over again, but it shows that it is absolutely out of ideas on any positive message for the people of Scotland.

  • Douglas Ross – 2022 Comments on the Resignation of Liz Truss

    Douglas Ross – 2022 Comments on the Resignation of Liz Truss

    The comments made by Douglas Ross, the Conservative MP for Moray, on Twitter on 20 October 2022.

    I wish Liz Truss and her family well. She has made a tough choice but it is the right decision.

    We must now move forward quickly and the new Leader and Prime Minister will have to restore stability for the good of the country.

  • Douglas Ross – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

    Douglas Ross – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

    The tribute made by Douglas Ross, the Conservative MP for Moray, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

    Often this place can be criticised for the debates we have, but I think it has risen to the occasion today in memory of Her late Majesty the Queen. The contributions from both sides of the House show the heartfelt thoughts of hon. Members who had close experience and of those of us who met the Queen very infrequently.

    I met Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth at the opening of the Scottish Parliament last year. As the leader of the main Opposition party, I had a short conversation with her, and she moved on to the other party leaders. I have a picture of the Queen shaking my hand with the beaming smile that we saw in her last picture, which was taken at Balmoral on Tuesday. Her Majesty the Queen loved Scotland, and Scotland loved Her Majesty the Queen. I think it is right that that picture was taken by an excellent Scottish photographer, Jane Barlow, who captured Her Majesty looking very calm, very happy and very at home in Balmoral, which she loved.

    I want to speak briefly on behalf of my constituents in Moray who enjoyed meeting the Queen on many occasions. Her last visit to Moray was in November 2014, when she arrived on the royal train at Elgin station and met our armed forces at RAF Lossiemouth and at Kinloss barracks; as has been mentioned today, the armed forces were important to Her Majesty, are important to King Charles III and will play an extremely important role in the coming days and weeks. On that visit in November 2014, the Queen was accompanied by the late Duke of Edinburgh. It was their 67th wedding anniversary. The public commitment to service and dedication of Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh meant that they went about their duties when others would have been celebrating a milestone anniversary.

    That was what the Queen provided: commitment and dedication at every opportunity to deliver for people across the country. Over the next few days and weeks, we will remember that commitment from Her Majesty the Queen. In our thoughts and prayers, we will keep King Charles III and the royal family, who are grieving the loss of a loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. But as we join together to grieve and mourn, we also unite to give thanks and to celebrate a life well lived: a life committed and dedicated to public service, a life that has shone a light through the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth and around the world. The tributes that we have heard in this place today and those from leaders across the globe show the respect that is rightly held for Her late Majesty the Queen, may she rest in peace. God save the King.

  • Douglas Ross – 2022 Speech on Delivery Charges in Scotland

    Douglas Ross – 2022 Speech on Delivery Charges in Scotland

    The speech made by Douglas Ross, the Conservative MP for Moray, in the House of Commons on 7 March 2022.

    I am delighted to have secured tonight’s Adjournment debate on an important topic for my Moray constituents. The Minister has already put in a great shift at the Dispatch Box today, and I apologise for delaying him further. However, in my article in The Northern Scot this week explaining to my constituents that I was having this Adjournment debate, I said that hopefully we would get to it quicker than last Monday’s, which started at 1.07 am, so we have done a little better already.

    If the Minister wants to blame anyone for being here at this hour, he should blame the Treasury. I originally secured this debate on the use of red diesel at ploughing matches, but I am very pleased that the Minister, who was perhaps worried about what might come out in an Adjournment debate, agreed to change excise notice 75 to ensure that ploughing matches in Moray, across Scotland and in the rest of the UK will no longer be subject to the potential change. I am delighted that we got that without an Adjournment debate—no pressure, Minister, but I now expect everything I ask for this evening to be delivered.

    Alberto Costa (South Leicestershire) (Con)

    I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. He talks about blaming someone for our being here at this time of the evening. May I ask his view? This is an important debate affecting the good people of Scotland, yet on the Opposition Benches I see no hon. Member from the nationalist party. Does that not demonstrate to the people of Scotland that the important topic that he is raising is simply being ignored by nationalist MPs?

    Douglas Ross

    Well, that is for others to decide, but I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who is a fellow member of the Select Committee on Scottish Affairs.

    Before my hon. Friend and I joined the Committee, it had looked at this issue. I have also secured Westminster Hall debates on it, including one that the Minister responded to 15 months ago, and I have raised it at Prime Minister’s questions. I know that it concerns Members across the House and our constituents, particularly those of us in the north of Scotland and the highlands and islands, and I make no apology for raising it again.

    The surcharges on the delivery of products bought by people in Moray and across many parts of Scotland are punitive and unfair and have been going on far too long. Businesses and couriers are treating my constituents and the people affected with utter contempt. It is completely wrong, and something must be done. To put into perspective how many people the issue affects, a Scottish Parliament briefing paper suggests that 440,000 people in Scotland live in areas affected by the surcharges. To put that into context, the same report says that 87% of adults in the United Kingdom buy online. That figure rose as high as 95% during the pandemic. That means that a big number of shoppers—95% of 440,000 people—are being punished not for what they want to buy, but because of where they want to buy from.

    It is absolutely wrong that the issue is raised time and again, but no action seems to be taken by the businesses or the couriers to deal with the problem. The Scottish Parliament Information Centre’s report says that the additional cost of delivery charges in commonly affected areas, compared with the rest of Scotland, is £45 million. That is £45 million that someone has to pay because they live in Moray, Inverness or one of many areas north of Perth—not the cost of the products, but the cost to deliver them.

    I would like to give some examples from my constituency, and one from slightly further afield, that I have been dealing with as the local MP. I have made it very clear that I want constituents to tell me when they have faced such problems, because I want to stop them. The only way we will stop them is by highlighting the injustice, highlighting the unfairness of the system and trying to get some action. I am glad that some action has been taken. The Advertising Standards Authority has issued several enforcement notices in cases that I have referred to it and in many others. Indeed, the Minister and I discussed that in our previous debate, but let me give just a few examples.

    A constituent in Mosstodloch purchased a wallet with no delivery charge advertised, yet when it came to the checkout online £15 was added. The ASA issued an enforcement notice on that company, because it had advertised no additional charges to mainland United Kingdom. A Findhorn resident tried to order a battery for a strimmer and was told it would be £30 to deliver to the IV36 postcode, which was almost more than the cost of the battery itself. Another constituent in Dyke was quoted £15 to order a tap for his motor home, even though free UK delivery was advertised. Dyke, in Moray, is part of the UK. How do these companies not get it? Why do they think that somehow we are cut off? We are not—we are part of the mainland UK. Therefore, if they advertise “free delivery to mainland UK”, whether for a tap for someone’s motor home or for something else, the person deserves to get free delivery to mainland UK. A constituent from Forres ordered goods worth £89 and the company was offering free delivery on orders over £40. She put in her IV36 postcode and the delivery charge rose to £117. So from free delivery for purchases of over £40, for her purchase of £89 it then became £117. Unfortunately, on this one, the ASA stated that because the company did not say that the free delivery applied to the whole of the UK, it was not able to take action. I would be interested to hear the Minister’s thoughts on that. Free delivery was being advertised, but just because the company did not say it was to the whole of the UK it got away with it.

    Another constituent from Findhorn had ordered £155-worth of specialist pipe insulation. Normal delivery was going to be £9.95, but they entered their IV36 postcode and an additional £40 was added, taking the total delivery cost to £50. In this case, the ASA did issue an enforcement notice, and I am pleased to say that the constituent got a full refund from the company. It accepted that it had done wrong in this case, even though it applied the charge in the first place. Another constituent put in an order for some garden equipment and although free UK mainland delivery was advertised, they were asked to pay a surcharge of £24 for “Scottish highlands”. We are not in the Scottish highlands. There is a Highland Council region, and Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen regions. Moray is a region on its own, yet we are again lumped in with the highlands. Finally, a product was ordered by one of my constituents in Elgin and they were told that the delivery charge was going to be £149.95. They then changed the address to that of a relative in Rothes, which is about 10 miles from Elgin and has an AB postcode, and there was no delivery charge whatsoever. So by travelling 10 miles within Moray one can go from a charge of almost £150 for delivery to having no charge at all. That just highlights issues with both businesses and couriers; they each try to blame each other, but they are both as guilty as each other and are imposing these charges when there is no good reason to do so.

    I was looking at the debate that the Minister and I held in Westminster Hall some time ago, when we spoke about how companies must at least be up front. We might not like the small print but if they are up front about things, in some cases we have to accept it. I do not accept it, but they are also not being up front. Another constituent in Elgin bought a bed for £435 and the order went through and was completed, but several days later she was contacted to say, “Actually, we have looked at your address and there is going to be a £70 surcharge for delivery.” That happened days after the purchase had been accepted by the company and agreed with my constituent. They believed that they were going to pay a certain amount, only then to get a phone call or an email to say, “Actually, we’ve found out where you live, we think it is too far away and we are going to put on another £70.” That is indefensible on the part of these companies and couriers; I am sure the Minister would agree on that, and so something must be done about it.

    I also said I would give one example from outwith my constituency, and I could have chosen literally hundreds. However, the example that I gave in a previous Westminster Hall debate—even previous to the one that I had with the Minister, because I have raised this issue a number of times before—was that it would sometimes be cheaper for me to buy an item in London, and instead of paying a charge to some company for it to be delivered to Scotland, pay for a seat for the gift I had bought, or some other parcel, on my easyJet flight.

    That is no longer the best example that I could give. A resident of Inverness, Jim Oliver, was seeking to help his mother-in-law, who was trying to purchase a gardening tool online. The cost of the gardening tool was £40, but she was going to be charged £2,000 for delivery. [Interruption.] Oh, it gets worse! It gets a lot worse than that. Jim decided to try himself. He typed in the same product name, and the delivery charge came out, not more expensive than buying a seat on the easyJet flight to get it up to Inverness, but more expensive than the world’s most expensive footballer. They could have bought Neymar for less. The delivery charge for a £40 product came in at £2,001,997.

    That was clearly a computer glitch, but I also want to highlight the fact that these companies just do not care. They literally do not care about their customers in parts of Scotland if they allow their system to say, “We will charge you more than the cost of Neymar to deliver this product to Inverness.” That demonstrates the contempt in which a number of these businesses hold our area, and the fact that they have got away with it for so long allows them to continue in the same vein.

    I must give credit to the Advertising Standards Authority for the work that it does in this area. It has seriously tried to tackle the issue, and has been extremely diligent in pursuing cases that I have put to it. It has tried to deal with them by means of enforcement notices—I have given examples in which that has not been possible—but what is an enforcement notice? What does it do? It is a slap on the wrist. Enforcement notices are clearly not stopping other companies following similar practices, they are clearly not acting as a deterrent, and people in Moray and other parts of the north of Scotland are being treated completely differently from people elsewhere in Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole. We need tougher enforcement from the ASA, and I think we should consider what further powers we could give it to take far stronger action.

    I decided to return to that debate in Westminster Hall and remind myself of the points that the Minister raised in his response. I wonder if he can update us on some of the issues. Back then, he said:

    “The consumer protection partnership chaired by officials in my Department continues to work on the issues.”

    Can he tell us what work the partnership is doing, and what proposals it has advanced to him or to other Ministers? He also noted that

    “Ofcom will be undertaking a review of its future regulatory framework for post”

    —and, presumably, other items—

    “over the next year.”—[Official Report, 9 December 2020; Vol. 685, c. 453WH.]

    That will have reached a conclusion by now. I do not know whether there have been any delays as a result of the pandemic, but can the Minister tell us what the outcome was of Ofcom’s review?

    In the past the Minister and his predecessors have been averse to the idea of legislating in this area, but does he accept that the longer we debate the issue—the more times I return to it, or it is raised by Members from my part or other parts of Scotland—while the current measures are not dealing with the problem, the more important it is to consider legislation? Why do 440,000 constituents in the far north and many other parts of mainland Scotland have to live with this day in day out, week in week out, year after year? For these prices are going up year after year. We read in parliamentary briefings that the cost for many parts of Scotland is going up and up. It was £45 million in 2021; what will it be in 2022 or 2023 if this continues?

    Will the Minister seriously consider potential legislation? In the more immediate term, will he agree to meet me and some of the big companies involved—the couriers and some of the other companies that are most guilty of adding excessive charges for constituents in Moray and many other parts of the highlands and the north? We need to get these companies round the table and explain to them that the problems they are causing and the issues that this causes for local representatives and the Government have to be dealt with. At the moment, they seem to be continuing as if nothing is wrong, although, as I have tried to explain tonight, things are continuing to go wrong. We need a meeting with them and the Minister, sitting round the table, to hear their responses to these concerns and to the cases that I and other elected Members put to them. If they think that they are in the right, we need to hear the reasoning behind that, but if they accept, as I hope they will, that they are in the wrong for imposing these excessive charges, we need to hear what they will do about it. I hope that the Minister’s office will help to bring these people round the table and help to deal with the situation before it is allowed just to go on and on.

    This is simply unacceptable. It was unacceptable when I raised it in 2017 in my maiden speech, it was unacceptable when I raised it with the former Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s questions, it was unacceptable when I raised it with the Minister’s predecessor in Westminster Hall and it was unacceptable when I raised it with this Minister in Westminster Hall. It is still unacceptable now, as I raise it in this Chamber in March 2022, that my constituents are forced to pay these excessive charges simply because of where they live. This is a postcode lottery. It is no longer acceptable to treat people in Moray and many parts of the country so differently from their friends and relatives in other parts of Scotland or the United Kingdom.

    The time for action has long passed. It has not come quickly enough, and we now need firm action from the Government to deal with this issue. Once and for all, we need to deal with the problem that many people have faced for far too long. I hope that, in responding to this debate, the Minister can update us on any actions taken since this was previously raised in this House, tell us what more can be done and give some hope to the people of Moray as they look to the year ahead. It is never too early to mention Christmas, and people will already be thinking about purchases for the year ahead and going into Christmas—[Interruption.] Well, it probably is too early to mention Christmas, but genuinely, people look at purchases and are deterred from buying them, not because they do not want or need the product but because they are unwilling to pay these extortionate costs. The people of Moray and the people of the highlands and islands are watching with interest tonight to see what hope the Minister and his Department can give them that this long-running problem will soon be just a bad and distant memory and that we can look forward to a future when Moray and other parts of Scotland are not affected by these extortionate costs.

  • Douglas Ross – 2021 Speech on HRH The Duke of Edinburgh

    Douglas Ross – 2021 Speech on HRH The Duke of Edinburgh

    The speech made by Douglas Ross, the Conservative MP for Moray, in the House of Commons on 12 April 2021.

    On behalf of the people of Moray, may I extend my deepest condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and to the entire royal family? The hon. Member for Edinburgh South (Ian Murray) has spoken about the city of the Duke of Edinburgh’s title; I will make some comments about Moray, the home of his school, Gordonstoun, which is just outside the village of Duffus.

    The Duke of Edinburgh was one of the first pupils at Gordonstoun in 1934. Over the weekend, I spoke to the current principal, Lisa Kerr, who shared some remarks about his time there. It was at Gordonstoun that the Duke of Edinburgh developed his lifelong love of Scotland, of the sea, of the outdoors and of sport. He took various positions in the school during his career there, culminating in becoming guardian, or head boy, in his final term—a role in which, to quote the school, he was

    “universally trusted, liked and respected”.

    On Prince Philip’s engagement to Princess Elizabeth in 1947, Gordonstoun’s founder, Kurt Hahn, wrote that the prince

    “enjoyed life…his laughter was heard everywhere and created merriness around him”.

    Those were clearly traits that he continued throughout his many decades of public service.

    Many right hon. and hon. Members have spoken about the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which of course also started in Moray: Kurt Hahn founded the Moray badge, a precursor to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and in the autumn of 1938, in the Duke of Edinburgh’s final year at Gordonstoun, he was awarded the senior silver Moray badge. In 1954, Kurt Hahn sought to take the award to a national level; he consulted Prince Philip and persuaded him to give his name to what became the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in 1956. That award has now supported and helped millions of young people, not just here in the United Kingdom but in over 140 countries. Young people across the world have benefited from their participation in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and it is a fitting and lasting legacy.

    I would also like to share a comment that our lord lieutenant, Major General Seymour Monro, made about Prince Philip over the weekend:

    “He gave great leadership to so many, whether it was the young, whether it was encouraging technology and enterprise in business, or encouraging sporting activities and events…However, above all, it will be as The Queen’s enduring, loyal and supportive Consort that he will be remembered.”

    Today, we remember. We remember a life well lived, a life of dedicated service to his Queen and country. We extend our sympathies to the Queen and the entire royal family as they mourn the loss of a loving husband of more than 70 years and a caring father, grandfather and great-grandfather. Prince Philip held a special place for Scotland from his younger years and his many travels there, on holiday at Balmoral and visiting so many good causes and charities across the country. Today, as a nation, we mourn the loss of a great public servant who for more than seven decades did so much for Scotland and the entire United Kingdom. We join in the royal family’s mourning of their loss of a true champion.

  • Douglas Ross – 2021 Speech on the Budget

    Douglas Ross – 2021 Speech on the Budget

    The speech made by Douglas Ross, the Conservative MP for Moray, in the House of Commons on 3 March 2021.

    I want to welcome the Budget on behalf of my constituents in Moray and of people across Scotland. There is a lot of good news in what the Chancellor had to say today. First, however, I want to pick up on a few remarks in the speech made by the leader of the Scottish National party, the right hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Ian Blackford). He accused members of this Government of not understanding what it was like to be poor. That is quite an incredible statement from someone who earned his fortune as an investment banker in the City of London before he rediscovered himself as a humble crofter.

    The right hon. Gentleman went on to say that this Budget lacked ambition, but I thought there was ambition weaved throughout the Chancellor’s statement. It has ambition for individuals, families and businesses in the weeks and months ahead, and ambition for our country in the years ahead. If the leader of the SNP at Westminster wanted to see a statement that lacked ambition, he should have looked at Nicola Sturgeon’s statement last week on her partial route map out of lockdown restrictions for Scotland. That was a document and a statement that lacked ambition, hope and clarity and one that we are seeing unravel at the moment as people in Scotland expect more from their Government.

    The final point I want to focus on from the right hon. Gentleman’s speech is his comment about how in Scotland there has been an extension to the freeze on business rates for a further year. That is true, but that further freeze, for another 12 months, was made possible and accepted by the SNP Finance Minister only because of an additional £1.1 billion of support from the UK Government to the Scottish Government. Kate Forbes stood up in Holyrood and said that she was able to do this only because of additional support coming from the UK Government to Holyrood, to the Scottish Government, so that is why we have the extension for a full year of business rates in Scotland.

    The right hon. Gentleman mentioned that newspapers were also covered. Of course, the SNP had to be forced to include newspapers in the business rates relief. A vote by the Scottish Conservatives in Holyrood, which the SNP was against to begin with, forced a U-turn. I will leave it to others to speculate why the SNP at this time would not want to support the newspaper industry in Scotland.

    Throughout the last year, in dealing with this pandemic, the UK Government have delivered unprecedented support for Scottish families and businesses: the furlough scheme and the self-employed income support, protecting 930,000 Scottish jobs; loans to over 90,000 Scottish businesses and an extension of the reduced rate of VAT for hospitality, leisure and tourism; the £20 a week uplift for universal credit to help those in our society who need it most, which is something I have been calling for since October last year; and £9.7 billion of additional funding for Scottish public services. With this Budget, the Chancellor is continuing those vital lifelines, extending furlough and the self-employed income support until September.

    Just as this pandemic has gone on longer than any of us could have imagined back in March last year, so, too, has the broad support delivered by the UK Treasury to the people of Scotland. Yet this is not just a Budget to help the Scottish economy to survive the pandemic. It is also a Budget for our recovery, with investments to support the economy in the north-east in its transition towards green energy, an acceleration of the transformative funding for Scottish growth deals to bolster the local economies in Ayrshire, Argyll and Bute, and Falkirk, and a freeze on the fuel duty to back Scottish drivers, which is crucial to our remote and rural areas. Just look at how that contrasts with the SNP Scottish Government lobbying for an increase in fuel duty. It has gone widely unreported that the SNP is calling for an increase. When we look at the options for fuel duty, how will that go down with voters in rural Scotland in a few weeks’ time? And, of course, as the MP for Moray, representing more Scotch whisky distilleries than any other MP in this place, I warmly welcome the freeze on spirits duty. That is hugely important to the distilleries in my constituency and alcohol producers more widely in Scotland and across the UK.

    The Budget shows that the UK Government have a plan to rebuild Scotland’s economy after the immediate health crisis is over, to create jobs and opportunity in every part of our country as we pull together to deliver our recovery. The Chancellor said that the majority of these measures apply across the United Kingdom. We have a further £1.2 billion of spending going to the Scottish Government. We need to see the Scottish Government ensuring that that gets to the services and businesses that need it most. On the stamp duty freeze, we now see that holiday continuing in England until September, but in Scotland it has now ended. We need to see action on that in Scotland as well.

    Yet SNP Members cannot welcome this plan—they could not support the Budget because they would rather focus on another divisive independence referendum than our recovery from coronavirus. They say that they want to bring this referendum forward at the earliest opportunity, just when people are renewing their ties with friends and families and businesses are beginning to reopen. Their plan would damage not only our Scottish recovery, but that of the whole of the United Kingdom. That is the last thing we need right now. What families and businesses across Scotland want to hear from the Scottish Government is a full route map for ending restrictions, not a route map for separation. As I said earlier, they are looking for certainty and for hope. This Budget has delivered that by extending the vital lifelines that Scottish families and businesses are relying on. It is now time for the Scottish Government to do the same.

    The Chancellor has set out an ambitious programme that will not only secure the survival of many jobs and businesses in Scotland, but provide the basis for our economic recovery in the future. There was just one point that I agreed with the leader of the SNP on. He said that Scotland has a choice of two futures—we do. In the coming Scottish Parliament election, voters will decide whether they want the focus of all the politicians and all the parties within the Scottish Parliament to be on another independence referendum or on rebuilding Scotland from coronavirus. Let us not choose more damaging division. Let us instead rebuild Scotland and the whole of the UK together. Today’s Budget will help us do that.

  • Douglas Ross – 2021 Speech on Alcohol Duty

    Douglas Ross – 2021 Speech on Alcohol Duty

    The speech made by Douglas Ross, the Conservative MP for Moray, in the House of Commons on 25 February 2021.