• Davey on tariffs: summon the US ambassador as Trump chaos “putting Liz Truss to shame”
• “Scandal” as 400 military families forced to face emergency housing repairs over VE day anniversary
• Greene comments on stalemate fears over Ardrossan harbour buyout plan
• Fiscal forecasts expose SNP financial mismanagement coming home to roost
• Lib Dems back Presiding Officer in Ross row
• Cole-Hamilton calls for national RAAC fund

Davey on tariffs: summon the US ambassador as Trump chaos “putting Liz Truss to shame”

Responding to the US Court of International Trade ruling that blocks many of Trump’s tariffs, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

The Government must urgently summon the US ambassador to clarify what this court ruling means for Starmer’s recent deal with Donald Trump. The levels of chaos from Trump’s economic policy is putting Liz Truss to shame.

“Scandal” as 400 military families forced to face emergency housing repairs over VE day anniversary

New research obtained by the Liberal Democrats has revealed that 442 military families had to call for urgent repairs on their state-provided housing over the week of VE-day commemorations – with a massive 64,000 requests for urgent repairs clocking up since January 2024.

Parliamentary questions submitted by the Liberal Democrats have revealed that over 440 urgent repair requests were filed by service families in state-provided military homes over the VE-day week.

The party has condemned the Government’s “hypocrisy” as the statistics have come to light. They’ve said it’s “a scandal” that so many serving families had to deal with the fallout of poor accommodation, particularly during a week of celebration for the service of the UK’s Armed Forces personnel and veterans.

The investigation, led by Helen Maguire – the party’s defence spokesperson – also revealed that a massive 64,258 urgent repair requests had been filed by military families since January 2024.

The harsh winter months saw the highest number of callouts by families in military homes, with 5,921 urgent requests submitted in January 2024 and 5,546 in January 2025.

The research comes as the MOD published its annual report on armed forces attitudes, which showed that almost two-thirds of forces personnel in service family accommodation are still dissatisfied with the quality of maintenance to their homes.

Helen Maguire MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Defence, said:

For so many military families to be struggling over the eightieth anniversary of VE day – a week when they should have been able to celebrate and feel recognised by the nation for their service – is a scandal.

This Government is more than happy to publicly celebrate our service personnel and veterans with a Downing Street party, but won’t take concrete action to fix their homes. That’s the ultimate hypocrisy.

It’s shocking that almost two-thirds of service personnel are still dissatisfied with the standard of maintenance for their housing. We desperately need to bring military housing up to the decent homes standard. Labour had the opportunity to support a Lib Dem motion to do just this, but chose to vote against it.

Greene comments on stalemate fears over Ardrossan harbour buyout plan

Responding to reports that campaigners fear a plan to bring Ardrossan harbour into public ownership to enable a major redevelopment has reached a stalemate, Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for the West of Scotland Jamie Greene said:

This is an extremely concerning development. After a decade of dilly dallying over the vital upgrades to Ardrossan harbour, the SNP government now seem incapable of taking the yard into public ownership.

Let us be clear if this deal falls through there is a real risk that the new Arran ferry will never sail from Ardrossan. That is bad news for Arran and it is devastating for North Ayrshire.

When I met with campaigners in March, they stressed the importance of getting this purchase across the line.

Peel Ports and SNP ministers must get round the table immediately and hammer out an agreement.

Local residents islanders and campaigners will never forgive them if they allow this deal to fall apart.

Fiscal forecasts expose SNP financial mismanagement coming home to roost

Scottish Liberal Democrat finance spokesperson Jamie Greene has today warned that the SNP’s financial mismanagement is coming home to roost as new economic forecasts cut expected GDP growth to just 1.2% in 2025-26 and show the pressures mounting on future Scottish Budgets.

Today’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts from the independent Scottish Fiscal Commission also show forecast spending on devolved social security payments will increase from £6.9 billion in 2025-26 to £9.4 billion in 2030-31. By 2029-30 spending on social security will now be £2.1 billion more than the funding received from the UK Government for its equivalent policies.

It also warns that there is a large negative budget reconciliation of £851 million currently projected for 2027-28. This means Scotland will get less money in its block grant due to poor growth in Scottish income tax revenues.

Commenting on the report, Jamie Greene said:

The picture this paints of the state of the Scottish public finances is not a pretty one.

Scots have paid more tax but only a fraction of that is available to spend on public services.

The welfare bill is rising fast, and of course we need a compassionate system but more needs to be done to create good jobs and get those who are economically inactive back to work through skills, training and fast access to proper NHS care.

A growing economy will grow the tax base and make it much easier to pay for great public services. Instead the government has seen ferries and prisons go wildly over budget and wasted money on a botched deposit return scheme and hugely expensive reforms to social care, which they botched. This is money which should have been spent on improving public services instead.

SNP financial mismanagement has come home to roost. It’s clear that Scotland is being failed by both of its governments. If you want a sensible, growing economy and decent public services then it’s time to vote Scottish Liberal Democrats and turf the SNP out of office once and for all.

Lib Dems back Presiding Officer in Ross row

Commenting on Douglas Ross being expelled from the Scottish Parliament chamber this afternoon, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

If Douglas Ross doesn’t want to be in the Scottish Parliament anymore he should just resign.

Anyone watching First Minister’s Questions will know that for weeks and week Douglas Ross has been provoking the Presiding Officer in the hope that he would get thrown out, in a cynical bid for relevance.

The Presiding Officer was quite right to eject him and my party has full confidence in her impartiality.

Cole-Hamilton calls for national RAAC fund

Alex Cole-Hamilton has today pressed the Scottish Government to deliver a national RAAC fund to support cash strapped public authorities to remove the dangerous concrete.

Speaking after the exchange, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

I was the first in this chamber to raise the problem with RAAC some two years ago at FMQs and I have consistently called for the establishment of a Scottish Government fund to remove RAAC from public buildings ever since.

This is in our schools, hospitals and homes. I find it incredibly frustrating that, after all this time, there is still no national fund and Ministers are expecting already cash strapped public authorities, some of whom are facing bills running into the tens of millions, to stump up the money themselves.

It is still not clear if funding will ever be made available to councils and health boards to remove this dangerous concrete. I think people who work and rely on these public buildings deserve better.