• Davey on European Political Community Summit: PM needs to be “bold and ambitious” but EU leaders need to “play ball”
• EFRA committee report: Government “must listen” and “ditch tax”
• Greene blasts incompetence at the Water Industry Commission
• Greene: If SNP won’t ban conversion practices, they should let me do it

Davey on European Political Community Summit: PM needs to be “bold and ambitious” but EU leaders need to “play ball”

Ahead of the European Political Community Summit, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

The Prime Minister must be bold and ambitious, using today’s talks to set out his stall for Monday’s vital ‘reset’ summit.

Between securing a youth mobility scheme, agreeing a comprehensive defence pact and making progress on building a bespoke customs union, he has the opportunity to deliver genuine growth and security for our country.

EU leaders need to play ball too. In the face of Trump’s unpredictability and Putin’s barbaric imperialism, it’s vital that we deepen our cooperation across trade and defence – and prevent talks stalling in a quagmire of petty disputes. A proper deal between the UK and EU will benefit us all.

EFRA committee report: Government “must listen” and “ditch tax”

Responding to the EFRA committee’s report saying that the Government must rethink the family farm tax, Tim Farron MP, Liberal Democrat Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Spokesperson, said:

The Government’s disastrous family farm tax has been a hammer blow to many farms up and down the country. The EFRA committee is absolutely right to call for a pause to rethink this dreadful tax.

Lib Dems have been hounding the Government from the very start to axe the family farm tax and protect those farmers already hanging by a thread after years of being failed by the Conservative party, with a botched Brexit deal, rocketing bills and plunging incomes.

It’s about time the Government started listening to farmers — and that starts by admitting they were wrong, listening to this report and ditching the family farm tax.

Greene blasts incompetence at the Water Industry Commission

Responding to a new report from the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee which notes that a ‘catalogue of failures’ led to the inappropriate and unacceptable use of public money at the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) and calling on the Scottish Government to review its systems for identifying concerns with public bodies to ensure any issues are caught at an early stage, Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Jamie Greene MSP said:

This is the kind of incompetence and poor administration that gives government and public bodies a bad name.

Money that should have been spent on delivering a key resource that everyone relies on was instead spend on boozy lunches and top-tier MBAs for senior staff, many of whom then left the organisation.

Sewage was dumped almost 25,000 times last year, blighting our rivers and beaches. In the face of that scandal we need sober and effective watchdogs that are able to hold the government-owned water company to account.

Instead we have a commission, and an SNP government, which has been dragged before parliament in embarrassment.

Greene: If SNP won’t ban conversion practices, they should let me do it

Scottish Liberal Democrat Jamie Greene MSP has today written to the Minister for Equalities urging the SNP Government to either introduce the promised legislation banning conversion therapy practices before the end of the current parliamentary session, or let him take the legislation through Parliament.

The Scottish Government have announced that they are dropping plans to outlaw conversion practices before the end of the current parliamentary session in May 2026.

In doing so, the SNP are reneging on their 2021 manifesto commitment to introduce a ban within that timescale.

Commenting, Jamie Greene MSP said:

All political parties promised to back change in the law in their 2021 Holyrood manifestos. The SNP made an explicit promise if they got into government to introduce this Bill and haven’t.

It’s no wonder political parties were banned from taking part in this year’s Pride events. Organisers say they are sick of warm words of encouragement to the LGBT+ community and want action.

It might be politically unappealing in an election year to have difficult conversations and debates of this nature, but backing down from promises and shying away from the argument is an insult to those affected by this abhorrent practice

I’ve made a simple offer to the SNP government: introduce the legislation this year, and if you can’t, or won’t, give the Bill to me and I will introduce it.

The only blockage now is the Scottish Government. So it’s over to them: do they say you support the LGBT community in words alone or will they take action?

The text of Jamie Greene’s letter to Equalities Minister, Kaukab Stewart, is as follows:

Dear Minister,

I write to you following my General Question on the 15th of May 2025 (S6O-04661) with regards to banning of so-named conversion therapy practices in Scotland.

I, along with many other LGBT+ individuals in Scotland, were disappointed to see plans to ban this practice dropped from the First Minister’s Programme for Government on the 6th of May 2025. The government consulted widely on this much-anticipated legislation just last year. Banning conversion therapy practices in this parliamentary term featured in every main political party’s manifesto in the 2021 election, including the Scottish National Party, a manifesto on which you were ultimately elected.

The current proposal to “wait and see” what happens at a UK level is a dangerous one. The former Conservative UK government shelved plans to introduce UK wide legislation of this nature, and to date there are no immediate signs from the new Labour government to introduce a Bill any time soon. Sadly, the Scottish Government cannot rely on the UK government to introduce this legislation in a timeous manner.

To delay this Bill until the next Scottish parliamentary session is reneging on a commitment made by you in this parliamentary session, and also a huge gamble. It pins hopes that any future government in Scotland will be one that progresses LGBT+ rights, not one which rolls back on them. It also gambles that parliamentary arithmetic will allow them to pass this law. That is a risk the community is simply not willing to take, and nor am I.

The First Minister recently stated that: “Scots must act now to protect our…shared values from the rise of the far right.” With that in mind I am urging the Scottish Government to do one of two things:

Introduce this legislation as a government before the end of this Parliamentary session or;
Hand this legislation to me and I will take it through the Parliament before the end of this session.
Whilst I am willing to meet and discuss this matter I must also be clear that the time for warm words has ended on this long overdue change, the time for action is now.

Jamie Greene MSP