Speeches by MacDonald.

“Q6. According to the Office for National Statistics, 174,000 people under the age of 35 moved abroad in the year ending June 2025. In the highlands, the problem is especially acute: demographic statistics show that young people are not staying in rural communities and pupil numbers in schools are down by 40% to 50% in …”

“Yes—sorry. Does the hon. Member agree that when the Government introduce legislation on, for example, national insurance and people doing part-time work, and now this gift aid issue, they should consider charities as separate organisations?”

“I thank the hon. Member for allowing me to intervene. I wonder if the Minister would consider the following. I was the vice-president of the National Trust for Scotland for the majority of 10 years and I know the senior management there very well. They have been extremely hurt by the national insurance increase, partic…”

“I left school at 16. I did extremely badly at school and seem to have been fine ever since, largely. It is now very clear to me that people who are neurodiverse in many ways contribute far more than normal people. If they were given a chance, they would succeed. Just 30 seconds on the internet produces the names Bill G…”

“I thank the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) for bringing this very important debate to the House. It is very disappointing that the Chamber is not full and that we do not have the Prime Minister sitting there. I cannot think of a more important subject for us to be debating in the United Ki…”

“Do you think there could be a case—I know the tourism and hospitality industry has made this case—that we are helping the strongest sectors and not helping the weaker sectors? For example, in rural Scotland by far the biggest sector is hospitality and tourism, and that sector is suffering enormous pain from energy pric…”

“I was going to ask if you think we are identifying the right sectors. We have already spoken about the Scottish whisky sector. Do any others spring to mind?”

“Just to disclose, I have a shareholding in a company that does spare parts for wind turbines. I wonder if I might put forward the idea that we are really nowhere near punching above our weight in the renewables sector, that by and large the turbines are made offshore, the contractors come from abroad or outwith Scotlan…”

“My family has served in the Army for many generations, including myself in the troubles in Northern Ireland, and indeed my son is serving now. We have seen and deeply admired the Army’s core values of courage, discipline, respect, integrity, loyalty and selfless commitment. Would my hon. Friend accept that the retired …”

“Q5. Successive Governments have imposed massive environmental tariffs on customers using UK-produced renewable electricity, but far less on imported carbon fuel mains gas. This is the main reason why those not on the gas grid—those living in rural Britain—pay a great deal more to heat their properties. Yes, renewable p…”

“It is an incredibly important subject. I left school before I was 17, and that was the end of my education. I have had a fantastic business career, I have written lots of novels and I am now an MP. That is despite no help at all from the educational system, and society as a whole putting across the message that people …”

“We had a most impressive presentation about the industrial strategy. One of the issues I raised then is that by far the biggest employer in Scotland is tourism and hospitality, and I would describe that sector as being in crisis. We are losing far more pubs, restaurants and hotels compared to England, for example. At t…”

“Is the Member of Parliament for the Western Isles wrong in saying that it is an unjust way of distributing it?”

“The Scottish Government. That £360 million was a Westminster distributed fund and only 8% of it went to Scotland.”

“I do not think it was fair to turn that question around and start blaming Scotland for this.”

“Minister, I have a question about the Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund. It is a £360 million fund and it is worth noting that Scotland received only 8% of this fund, announced last week, despite having 60% of the UK’s fishing value. Did the Government consider allocating the fund in a way that reflects Scotland’s contri…”

“I had a conversation with Highland council, I have seen documentations coming to the Home Office, and I have met the Home Office Minister, Alex Norris, twice. I think that the word was they were informed rather than engaged or consulted with.”

“Minister, you will be aware that there is a plan to house 300 migrants at Cameron barracks in Inverness. That is effectively closing down town centre hotel migrant bases in the south of England and moving them to what I would consider a town centre property in Inverness, 0.8 miles from the Eastgate Centre. There is con…”

“The Chair has offered me an hour to talk about this subject in just two areas. One is infrastructure for electricity, and the second is community benefit from actual renewables. It is a multi-billion pound industry in the highlands. The majority of the electricity is exported. Norway saved $2 trillion from its oil and …”

“I wrote to the Post Office in July, three and a half months ago, and it emailed a response this week—I think three and a half months might be a record. The posties in the west highlands, a very rural area, get paid an amount of money that is not attractive to them. We have areas in Wester Ross and Skye that are getting…”