Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Thursday, November 3, 2022

Official Report 1151KB pdf

Junior Minister

The next item of business is a debate on motion S6M-06595, in the name of Nicola Sturgeon, on appointment of a junior Scottish minister. Members who wish to speak in the debate should press their request-to-speak buttons now.

I am very pleased to move the motion in my name, that Elena Whitham be appointed as a Scottish junior minister.

Before I do so, I thank Ash Regan for her contributions to the Scottish Government. During her time as Minister for Community Safety, Ash worked across a wide range of important issues, such as tackling inequality in the justice system and introducing and seeing being passed new legislation to restrict the sale and use of fireworks. In thanking her, I also wish her all the best for the future.

I turn to today’s appointment. It gives me great pleasure to seek Parliament’s agreement to the appointment of Elena Whitham. Although she is relatively new to Parliament, I have no doubt that she brings significant experience to the wide-ranging role of community safety minister.

Elena has spoken of how her political convictions have been shaped by her own life experiences growing up in a loving family that was often blighted by poverty and real hardship, which eventually forced them to emigrate to Canada when she was just six years old. Elena returned to Scotland after graduating from university. She worked in community youth and homelessness roles, and ran three businesses as a sole trader.

She also spent over a decade as a Scottish Women’s Aid worker in Ayrshire, supporting women and children who experienced domestic abuse. More recently, Elena has served as the depute leader of East Ayrshire Council and was community wellbeing spokesperson for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

Since becoming a member of the Scottish Parliament last year, Elena has greatly impressed both her colleagues and, I hope, her political opponents with her robust and fair convenership of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee.

Finally, Elena is, I think, the only person in the chamber who has campaigned in independence referendums on both sides of the Atlantic, having been involved as a student in the 1995 Quebec independence vote. The yes side, of course, lost that referendum by the narrowest of margins. Without swaying too much into constitutional politics, let me just say that I am confident that for Elena it will, on the referendum front, be third time lucky.

It is often said that people rightly place huge priority on politicians’ having real-life experience. If that is the case, Elena’s political, professional and, indeed, personal experiences make her overwhelmingly qualified for ministerial office. She has proved herself to be a hard-working and capable public servant, and I am sure that everyone in the chamber will give her their best wishes.

I ask Parliament to agree that I seek the King’s approval for the appointment of Elena Whitham as a junior Scottish minister.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees that Elena Whitham be appointed as a junior Scottish Minister.

On behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, I echo the First Minister’s congratulations to her newest minister, Elena Whitham. I also commend the First Minister for displaying her customary good humour and collegiate warmth in the text of her letter to the outgoing minister, Ash Regan. The letter was short, but I am not sure that it was sweet, so it is no wonder that ministerial resignations are a rare event in her Government.

On behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, I join the First Minister in congratulating Elena Whitham on her new role. Despite a long period in Canada, she is deeply rooted in the community that she represents. The new Minister for Community Safety served as a Scottish Women’s Aid worker in Ayrshire for more than a decade, so she is experienced in the sensitive and important issues relating to her new role.

Like the First Minister, I also note that in the 1995 referendum, Ms Whitham was a campaigner in favour of an independent Quebec, so can I wish her the same success in any similar future referendum, should it ever arise.

I also pay tribute to Ash Regan. It is not common for Scottish National Party MSPs to think independently of the First Minister, let alone to resign from her Government, so I thank her for her integrity, her principled honesty and, of course, her bravery.

There is an irony in a Minister for Community Safety resigning on an issue that is, ostensibly, one of community safety. She took a principled stand—something that, sadly, we do not see enough of in public life today. There is also irony in that the minister who sought to ban fireworks went out with a bang the week before Guy Fawkes night. She lit the First Minister’s blue touchpaper but, judging by her press conference this week, she is clearly not going to retire to a safe distance.

I also take the opportunity to commiserate with those bright, aspiring and ambitious SNP back benchers who are still hoping to have their first ride in a ministerial limousine—Christine Grahame, Paul McLennan, Kenny Gibson, Stuart McMillan, John Mason and Michelle Thomson, among others. I am sure that their time will come. Indeed, it might come sooner than they think; it might come as soon as stage 3 of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill later this month, when the First Minister might receive a further round of ministerial resignations.

In closing on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, I wish Elena Whitham well. It is an important position that she takes on for the communities that we represent, so we wish her well in it.

The question is, that motion S6M-06595, in the name of Nicola Sturgeon, on appointment of a junior Scottish minister, be agreed to.

Motion agreed to,

That the Parliament agrees that Elena Whitham be appointed as a junior Scottish Minister.