Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:00 pm on 29 November 2022.
Llywydd, I also had the opportunity to discuss with Anna McMorrin yesterday evening the debate to which she would be replying. I’m very glad indeed that she emphasised, as I hoped she would, the importance of a partnership between the next Labour Government and the Labour Government here, because it’s only in that way that we will ever see the transfer of responsibility for justice matters, which is the policy of this Government, which was contained in the Labour manifesto in the 2017 and 2019 general elections. So, I’m very glad to see that that was so very firmly put on the record by our Labour colleague at Westminster Hall.
Matters in Scotland are matters for the Scottish Labour Party and for the leader of the party to navigate. I hear what the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland says, which is that a referendum is a matter of timing and, quite certainly in the view of the Scottish Labour Party, now is not the moment when people in Scotland have their minds focused on constitutional matters when they have a winter of the sort that they see stretching out in front of them.