Speeches by Alexander.

“First, there is a philosophical difference between us, notwithstanding our long-standing knowledge of and, I hope, respect for each other. Philosophically I believe in devolution as a two-Parliament solution to Scotland’s governance. I recognise rightly and reasonably that the First Minister takes a different view, bec…”

“I will have to check and come back to you.”

“Going forward carries a lot of weight in that sentence, given what we are looking at in the coming days. My sense is there is a huge opportunity for us with devolution. I have carried torches on Carlton Hill, I have stood in the rain in The Meadows, I have rallied in George Square arguing for and advocating for a Scott…”

“First, I extend my congratulations to you on your recent by-election victory and welcome you to this Committee. I have deep bonds of family friendship, kith and kin, in the Scottish Parliament over the last 25 years. Informally, long before I assumed the office of Secretary of State for Scotland, I was being told in no…”

“I don’t want to sound immodest. It is probably for others to make that judgment, and people are never backward in coming forward with their views of any politician. As I look back over the last eight or nine months, the fact that we secured more than £100 million for the ethylene plant at Grangemouth was a matter of ch…”

“I was trying to think of a polite way of saying Scotch whisky does not just employ a lot of people in Dunbarton; my recollection of my childhood is that there were quite a lot of geese employed by the whisky industry as well, given the bonds there and the honking geese we heard as we drove past for many years. You are …”

“A sense of proportion is probably necessary. If you look at the proportion of Scotch whisky that is subject to duty from the Treasury—this is a long-standing conversation with the Scotch Whisky Association—you see that the vast bulk of Scotch whisky is produced for export, so it is not an incidental matter to have stru…”

“Can you remember the timing of the British industrial competitiveness scheme?”

“I am a proud product of a Scottish state school and Edinburgh University and I continue to believe in the principles of the Scottish enlightenment. Facts are important in this debate and it is right to recognise that the First Minister received that message from the President. Of course, the President says a great numb…”

“Respectfully, let me read for the record exactly what he said, because I have the quote in front of me, “During President Trump’s visit to Scotland in July, we succeeded in putting whisky firmly on the trade agenda.” I hope I have been able to adduce to the Committee today that whisky was on the agenda. Whisky was on t…”

“That is the most immediate bespoke example that comes to mind. It is partly an initiative of incoming Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo, who was keen to establish a cross-Whitehall capability. It has only been in position for a matter of weeks and months but it has weighed quite heavily on all of us as Ministers who are …”

“If I could add, Chair, building on Kirsty’s point about the matters of substance, the middle east is clearly much in our thoughts today, given the news overnight. I know that the Foreign Secretary is in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee as we speak. We have established a particular architecture of meetings …”

“Honestly, I see my responsibility as both. Clearly in Whitehall you want to be Scotland’s voice at the Cabinet table, in Cabinet sub-committees and in the various mechanisms by which we formulate policy and agree legislation. At the same time, you are Scotland’s voice more broadly and speaking on behalf of Scotland in …”

“I will set the context for what was achieved on 30 April, because I think that is worth setting out for the record, and then I will come to both of your supplementary points. Since February 2025, the UK Government were working to secure what turned out to be the economic prosperity deal with the United States. February…”

“Not so far, but hope springs eternal. To be fair to them, I think they will be looking to the incoming Prime Minister to set out his thinking on a whole range of matters as it affects Scotland. There have already been some public statements from Stephen Gethins, as I recollect, but they focused on the UK internal marke…”

“Thank you for the warmth of your welcome to me and colleagues, Chair. My understanding is that under the 2022 review of intergovernmental relations, it was anticipated that the council would meet at least twice yearly. I will contextualise the two meetings that have happened. Under the review in 2022, there was agreeme…”

“That is the top tier that brings together the Deputy First Minister and the First Minister of Northern Ireland, the First Minister of Wales and the First Minister of Scotland. I think it is reasonable to observe, however, that that is the scaffolding of a series of contacts that is pretty much continual. The vast major…”

“The review was undertaken under our predecessors in 2022, but having come into this position after many years out of Government and away from politics, I think the regular cadence of formal meetings is helpful and beneficial to the relationship. We have adhered to those requirements, but at the same time it is right to…”

“I think it is probably for others to make that judgment but certainly my experience, after many years away, is that there is a structured and frequent nature of contact between Ministers that was not as present in the earlier years of devolution. The political dynamics were pretty different after July 2024. As a Labour…”

“That was the request to which the answer was given and we were mindful of the position that had been taken by the Scottish Parliament. It might be helpful to draw the contrast between the years immediately preceding 2014, where of course we had the independence referendum, and where we find ourselves in 2026. In the ye…”