Speeches by Alexander.

“As I say, we were in a position where the Scottish Government were not co-operating on the common frameworks programme. The UK is not the only actor on this stage. In that sense we require and genuinely hope to have the engagement of the Welsh Government, the Northern Irish Executive, and indeed the Scottish Government…”

“There is a lot of work under way at the moment on the common frameworks that I was describing. We were in a position prior to the review where there had not been the level of engagement by the Scottish Government in particular. My sense was they were waiting to see what had emerged. I checked via my officials earlier t…”

“I am coming to your point. On the welding centre, we stepped in because the Scottish Government were not willing to recognise that in the very dangerous Euro-Atlantic security environment and the global situations that we find ourselves in, the responsible course is to support our industries to be able to defend oursel…”

“John is a good friend as well as a colleague and I will leave him to opine on China. On the conduct of the Scottish Government, in my capacity as Secretary of State for Scotland I was in Greenwich doing a defence roundtable a couple of weeks ago, and if you listen to Scottish business, they were deeply perplexed by the…”

“It is inherent in the nature of parliamentary democracy that even if you legislate you are vulnerable to subsequent Parliaments legislating in a different way, so I am not sure that provides a greater degree of assurance. Secondly, I think there was an urgency for Scottish businesses. I was very mindful of Scotland’s i…”

“We certainly with earnest endeavour sought to do so and, you are right, I led the Internal Market Act review. Let us start with the policy and then come to the process. How do you balance—as someone deeply committed to devolution—the policy space for decision making under a devolved framework of power, with the reality…”

“Sure.”

“I do not have the exact number of hotels in Scotland, but as I say, the bulk of the asylum seekers presently in Scotland are housed in Glasgow in a range of accommodation.”

“Yes.”

“There are now fewer hotels than there were. The peak under our predecessors was about 400 asylum hotels and that is now down to about 200. We have returned about 35,000 people with no right to be in the United Kingdom, but essentially the processing under our predecessors simply collapsed. In that sense of course we ne…”

“First, thank you for the question. Let me deal with the question in two ways. First, on the process of engagement, I spoke to colleagues in my own party in a highlands and islands conference at the weekend and was able to share with them some of the information on what contact the UK Government had. Given the sensitivi…”

“Notwithstanding the fact that we are proud of that record, it is worth recognising there are occasions where, at the request of different Governments, last minute changes are required. For example, on the Bus Services Act the Scottish Government made a late-stage request to extend non-zero emission bus provisions to al…”

“You are absolutely right to recognise that on occasion the nature of the demands of the legislative scrutiny and parliamentary timetables means that short notice consideration is sometimes unavoidable. I feel that we have had a pretty effective record on LCMs to date of securing those consents, and that stands in a gre…”

“Obviously we are very mindful of the imminent elections in the spring. I can assure you that is part of my thinking and I will make sure that is in the consciousness of the Cabinet Office as well.”

“We have been engaging with the Scottish Government and other devolved governments on a draft MOU since July this year. The devolved governments are presently considering this draft and engagement has been positive. The intention is to have something agreed and published soon. I am afraid that is very careful Whitehall …”

“If you look at the polling ranking, it is significantly lower than issues around cost of living, criminal justice and a range of other issues. We can have an argument about the psephology but equally it is clear that when that question was put to the Scottish people there was a clear and overwhelming majority for stayi…”

“Look at the salience of independence relative to, for example, the state of the health service that your party has left after 20 years in power.”

“I find the othering implicit in your question not only inaccurate but offensive, because one of the points that was established in 2014 is that the flag does not belong to one political party. Patriotism does not belong to one political party. I would argue the reason that my side of the referendum argument prevailed w…”

“First, I am not anticipating a defeat for the party of which I am a member and we are working for a victory. Secondly, I will be at St Giles on Sunday. I was first in St Giles the Sunday after the referendum when there was a national service of reconciliation, a service of national reconciliation that very regrettably …”

“The mandate on which we were elected as a UK Government was very clear that we are not countenancing the break-up of the United Kingdom or a further referendum. Secondly, one of the differences between now and 2014 is that 2014 actually happened. We had our choice, we made our choice. I know that is a matter of disappo…”