• King’s Speech: Fixing NHS and care must be a priority
• Welsh Lib Dems call for First Minister to go
• Rennie: Scotland needs good governance, not SNP chaos
• Rennie comments on ferry contract decision

King’s Speech: Fixing NHS and care must be a priority

Commenting ahead of the King’s Speech tomorrow, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Years of chaos under the Conservatives have left us with a stagnant economy and health services in a state of crisis. Millions of people are stuck on NHS waiting lists and struggling to get the care they need to return to work.

Fixing the NHS and care would put rocket boosters under economic growth in our country.

The Liberal Democrats will keep campaigning for our policies to tackle the health and care crisis and get our economy back on track. That is what millions of people voted for at the General Election, we will not let them down.

Welsh Lib Dems call for First Minister to go

Responding to the recent resignations from Vaughan Gethings cabinet, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds MS said:

Vaughan Gething has now lost both the confidence of the Senedd and several members of his own Government; he must resign from his position as First Minister.

We cannot afford to allow internal fighting in Welsh labour to distract us any longer from the range of serious issues facing our country.

The Welsh people are sick and tired of constant political scandals and broken promises, they want to see a political system that works for them.

We as the Welsh Liberal Democrats will deliver that change.

Rennie: Scotland needs good governance, not SNP chaos

Scottish Liberal Democrat communities spokesperson Willie Rennie has today said that Scotland needs good governance not SNP chaos.

His comments come as new figures from the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey reveal that:

• Just 47% trust the Scottish Government to work in Scotland’s best interests, which is down on 61% in 2019.

• Only 35% think the Scottish Government listen to people before making decisions which is a drop from 51% in 2019.

• On running the NHS, only 23% were happy with how it was run, in comparison to 64% in 2019.

Willie Rennie said:

Scotland needs good governance not SNP chaos.

These figures show that across the board, the public have less faith in the people running our country.

That’s no wonder when the equivalent on one in seven Scots are now on a waiting list and the SNP is lurching from disaster to scandal.

Scottish Liberal Democrats want to restore standards in public life and ensure that everyone can get access to local health services close to home.

Rennie comments on ferry contract decision

Responding to the news that the Scottish government has started a “competitive” process to award a contract to replace CalMac’s ageing fleet of small ferries but that up to £14.2m of investment will be delivered to the Ferguson shipyard to “improve productivity and build a sustainable future”, Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP said:

We’re all praying that the SNP Government don’t repeat the horrific mistakes of the last two ferries built at Ferguson Shipyard although the loss of the expertise provided by David Tydeman is a great concern.

The decision to opt for a competitive tender process is risky as the yard needs a regular drumbeat of orders and work to maintain the skilled workers essential for the construction of the ferries.