Speeches by Doogan.

“I note the Minister’s doughty protestations on behalf of the Secretary of State, but noting that is one thing. What message does she have for the 800,000 young Scots who were unable to vote in the 2014 referendum about her party’s continued dogma preventing young people in Scotland from having a say on their constituti…”

“The Minister will know that the Secretary of State is regularly to be heard talking about his many, many good friends. Does she believe that the Prime Minister-elect is one of those good friends, and, while we are on the subject of young Scots, will it not be awkward when the Secretary of State’s job is taken by anothe…”

“Accepting your joint-hat proposition, in your time as Secretary of State for Scotland, what is your principal achievement in upholding Scotland’s ambition and/or priorities within the UK Government?”

“It is a pleasure to be able to ask you a question at this Committee, Baroness Smith. The Scottish Government have an ambition to introduce price caps to between 20 and 50 staples in large supermarkets. An assessment has been made that it will not fall foul of the requirements of the UK Internal Market Act. What was the…”

“I am sorry—I am not seeking to misrepresent what you said, I was struggling to recall it. Can I say, in response to that, was it not the UK Internal Market Act that, admittedly, the previous Government used to force back the inclusion of glass in the DRS?”

“You will know from your previous roles that there is an awful lot in trade that is about relationships and personalities. As I said, the First Minister was not claiming to have marshalled the resources of the UK Government but he was claiming to have advanced Scotch whisky, and the tariffs thereon, on a personal level …”

“It sounds like a no, then.”

“Secretary of State, I don’t think the First Minister ever claimed to marshal the Department for Business and Trade or any other organ of the UK Government in securing tariff lifting, but he did play a central role. I have heard your explanation of events but slightly jarring with that is where President Trump said that…”

“If you are, what advice would you give him on those two priorities for the Scottish Parliament, in particular on the constitution? If it is not Scottish people and the people living in Scotland who should decide our future, who should?”

“Secretary of State, just to develop that theme a little bit further, as my colleague Kirsteen has said, the Scottish Parliament voted to devolve competence over holding a further referendum on independence to the Scottish Parliament, and competence over energy as well. If you are the Secretary of State in the next Prim…”

“I think that is clear. I wonder, Secretary of State, given what has been clearly set out in terms of Minister-Law Officer privilege, if I can put it that way, whether you can have a stab at that.”

“With regard to your explanation that the UK Internal Market Act will not affect the Scottish Government’s ability to legislate otherwise—”

“Let me reframe it slightly, because I do not want to ask you an unanswerable question. Can you confine your answer to how it was that we could reach that assessment in the absence of what could be considered a lack of detail from the Scottish Government about precisely what it is they are seeking to do and how they are…”

“You talked earlier about your unsuccessful offer to meet with the First Minister since May. You know well that the First Minister has a long-standing policy of engaging at ministerial level in the UK Government with the Prime Minister. That is no small measure of why that might have been frustrating for you. Neverthele…”

“Secretary of State, you are a key member of the UK Government responsible for leading intergovernmental relations where legislation is introduced here and it crosses over into areas of the devolved competencies in the Scottish Parliament. The Committee has heard about the increasing challenges with the timeliness of sh…”

“I am accepting that on its merits. I might disagree; I might not. Therefore, do you not accept that the threshold, nebulous as it is, about whether you get a banking hub—entirely in the gift of LINK, subject to what the FCA tells it to do, and subject, I suspect, behind closed doors, to what the banks want it to do—is …”

“I hear you. Every time a branch shuts in my constituency, I get that data from the bank as well that shows who is using physical banking and what they are using it for, and who is on the telephone and who is on digital. I get all that. You did not answer it very well on the last question, Mr Leenders. You say that olde…”

“Mr Leenders, I have the utmost respect for banking hubs. I have one in Brechin. It has been transformative. The problem is when areas such as Pitlochry and the vast hinterland that Pitlochry serves have their last bank closed, and they are told by LINK that they do not meet the criteria, opaque as they are, for a banki…”

“I did not mention a cause, Mr Leenders; I just mentioned a fact.”

“Okay, but, to get back to my pretty straightforward question, do you think this is a reasonable thank you to the people who stopped the very businesses that are closing these branches from going to the wall? Is that a reasonable thing?”