Humza Yousaf has announced plans for expanded free childcare and school lunches, a move to ban single-use vapes and a law to criminalise misogynistic abuse in a programme that was immediately dismissed by opposition leaders as a rehash of existing commitments.
Yousaf said that his programme for government – the Holyrood equivalent of the king’s speech – was “unashamedly anti-poverty and pro-growth”, with a deliberate focus on supporting women, who are “disproportionately affected by the pressures of modern life”.
After a summer of difficult headlines for the SNP, the speech to MSPs on Tuesday afternoon was trailed as a moment to reset his government’s fortunes.
However, in response to the plans, the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, said he had “lost count of the number of false starts and rebrands the FM has attempted in the last six months”, adding the measures were simply not “bold enough” to tackle the twin crises of cost of living and health service.
Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, described the first minister as a “poor Nicola Sturgeon tribute act”.
In what he described as “the most generous childcare offer in the UK”, Yousaf announced an expansion of one of his predecessor’s top policies: funding six early adopter councils to increase access to childcare from nine months through to the end of primary school; accelerating the expansion of childcare for families with two-year-olds; and funding a minimum wage of £12 an hour for those working in the sector from April next year.
He also repeated his commitment to increase pay for social care workers to a minimum of £12 an hour, which he had first announced in April shortly after becoming first minister.
Yousaf’s speech today only made passing reference to the severe budgetary constraints facing his government when it sets out its tax and spending plans later this year.
The first minister set out a series of other measures to support people through the cost of living crisis, confirming the rollout of universal free school meals to primaries 6 and 7; removing income thresholds from the Best Start Foods grant for pregnant women and families with children under three; and increasing total investment in Scottish government social security payments, which support more than 1.2 million people, by almost £1bn.
But there was disappointment from children’s charities that he did not meet his commitment, made during his SNP leadership campaign, to increase the Scottish Child Payment – a key Scottish government mitigation – to £30.
Yousaf also pledged to “listen and to act as we build a new relationship with business” after a report for the Fraser of Allander Institute last week found the vast majority of businesses did not believe the Scottish government understood their needs, and the programme was initially welcomed by business organisations.
Announcing a £15m plan to support innovation and entrepreneurship, Yousaf also told MSPs he had written to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, requesting the powers to trial tax breaks for sectors like renewable energy and artificial intelligence.
But a heavily trailed four-day week was not mentioned in his speech, and received scant mention in the programme’s accompanying document other than a pilot.
Friends of the Earth Scotland described the plans – which included few direct green commitments other than the streamlining of the renewables planning process and a consultation on disposable vapes – as “an underwhelming programme for more of the same”.
Yousaf also confirmed his government would be bringing forward legislation to criminalise misogynistic abuse following recommendations of a working group led by Helena Kennedy KC, the Labour peer, as part of wider steps to “build a society where men feel confident in taking a stand” against unacceptable behaviour, as he set out in his recent piece for Guardian Opinion.
