SHONA Robison has taken aim at the Scottish Tories for their motion aiming to strip asylum seekers of free bus travel.
The Tories are forcing a vote on the issue and have accused the SNP of being “out of touch” for pursuing the policy.
The debate in Holyrood comes after we told how churches banded together to urge MSPs to avoid pitting vulnerable groups against each other, with the Scottish Tories claiming the £2 million earmarked for the policy could be used to give “thousands of Scots pensioners a winter fuel payment right now”.
Speaking in Holyrood, Scotland’s Finance Secretary Shona Robison (below) said: “I welcome any opportunity to talk about the draft Budget, but I think there’s one particular aspect of the Conservative motion it’s incumbent on us all to condemn.
“I know there are members of the Conservative benches who deeply value all the communities they represent and will deplore the terms of the Tory motion today.
“And knowing those individuals, I don’t believe for one moment that they condemn the Farage-esque dog whistle attack on asylum seekers that’s at the rotten core of today’s Tory motion or Craig Hoy’s description of our important equality work as woke.
“It’s frankly embarrassing.”
Robison further added that it was more likely members agreed with the joint call from churches across Scotland to show support for those coming to Scotland “seeking sanctuary and new beginnings”.
Tory finance spokesperson Craig Hoy, who will lead the debate, said the motion he laid in Parliament will show how “out of touch” the Scottish Government is, and that it is only his party which “is on the side of the public on this issue”.
He said: “The SNP and the other left-wing parties at Holyrood are completely disconnected from Scots and believe this policy is the right thing to do.
“We disagree.”
The motion was met with anger across the Chamber with Scottish LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton saying the Scottish Tories should “take a long, hard look at themselves” while Scottish Labour MSP Michael Marra hit out at the party for pitting two groups of “very vulnerable” people against each other.
Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer (below) meanwhile said the call made by Scottish churches reminded him of a cartoon of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
“He’s sitting round the table with two ordinary workers – one black and one white and he’s sitting with a mountain of cookies on his plate,” Greer explains.
“The black worker has one and the white worker has none and Murdoch points at the black man and says to the white man ‘he stole your cookie’.
“That is the ethos of the Conservative Party. To sow division between ordinary people and that’s their ethos because they exist to protect the interests of those who are really at fault.
“The Conservative Party exists to protect the company bosses who rake in huge profits while paying their workers poverty wages, the billionaires who hoard more wealth than they could spend in 100 lifetimes, the landlords who hoard housing and trap their tenants with unaffordable rents.
“The enemies of ordinary people, Scottish or British, don’t arrive by dinghy at Dover, they arrive in this country by private jet.
“And the Tory party has always been ready to stand in service of those real villains, not the general public.”