On his first trip to Scotland as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak is rejecting calls to increase the pay offer to NHS staff to avoid further strike action.
He is also warning that the UK Government is still considering blocking the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill.
And he formally announced two new free ports on the Cromarty and Forth which he says could create thousands of new jobs.
This went pretty well for the Prime Minister – making the trip at all was a step up on his predecessor Liz Truss who didn’t stay in office long enough, and there were no Boris Johnson style gaffes, so I think the PM’s team and his party will be pretty pleased.
He met the First Minister in Inverness last night the meeting was described as cordial – which means warm and friendly but a lemon cordial can be pretty sharp and sour and I suspect the exchanges on NHS pay and UK Government anti-strike legislation will have been more sharp than warm.
I spoke to the Prime Minister and began by asking him if he was trying to break the strikes and if he would increase NHS pay to stop them.
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