Scotsman Politics: FMQs Roundup Thursday October 02 2025 #FMQs

The Scotsman

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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show.

00:04We're here to wrap up First Minister's Questions for another week

00:07and I'm joined by our political editor, Alistair Grant,

00:11who's coming to your life in the halls of Holyrood.

00:14Alistair, it was a reasonably eventful First Minister's Questions.

00:18The start of it was framed by a swimba note from John Street

00:24as he addressed the attack that has taken place in Manchester

00:28at a synagogue earlier today.

00:30You can read full coverage around that attack at scotsman.com.

00:35Alistair, what did John Swinney have to say for you?

00:40I mean, John Swinney just very much expressing his horror at that attack,

00:44saying that his thoughts were with the families and the victims

00:47and also saying that, you know, anti-Semitism is an evil

00:50that we all must stand against.

00:53So a very kind of sombre beginning to First Minister's Questions there.

00:56And you can read John Swinney's full remarks on the Scotsman's website.

01:01And we should say it's confirmed that two people have been killed

01:04and also the suspect in this case believed to have been shot dead

01:08by police at the scene.

01:10So there will be more details coming out around that attack.

01:13So Keir Starmer is flying back to the UK to chair a COBRA meeting.

01:17And there's already some comments about added security at synagogues

01:22across the country in response to this incident.

01:24So, as I've said, you can get all the latest at scotsman.com.

01:28Alistair, away from that, there were some interesting exchanges

01:32over colleges between John Swinney and the Scottish Labour Leader.

01:37Yeah, so Anna Sarwa, the Scottish Labour Leader,

01:39was going in on this Audit Scotland report released today

01:43that shows a 20% real terms cut to colleges funding

01:46over the last five years.

01:49Anna Sarwa pointing to things like the Alloa campus

01:51at Forth Valley College, which is facing closure.

01:54He was talking about the importance of colleges

01:56when it comes to employers, when it comes to apprenticeship schemes,

02:00and also talking about the fact that working-class children,

02:03working-class young people often rely on it as a way

02:06into further education as well.

02:08And he was saying that working-class children

02:10are being let down by the Scottish Government.

02:13He was asking if John Swinney would intervene

02:15over the Alloa campus.

02:17John Swinney was very much saying that

02:18the Education Secretary is working on this.

02:21He was saying that he views that campus as essential,

02:24partly because it's in an area of deprivation

02:26and how important further education colleges like this

02:30can be for those kind of areas

02:32when it comes to getting people into jobs,

02:33when it comes to getting people into training.

02:36But Anna Sarwa very much saying

02:37the college sector was in crisis.

02:39We at the Scotland have obviously done

02:41a lot of coverage in this in the past.

02:43The fact that the colleges sector is underfunded.

02:46There's been lots of coverage about this,

02:49about strike action taken by staff at these colleges,

02:52concerns over the number of courses being reduced,

02:55and the kind of opportunities that people have being reduced.

02:58But I thought there was a kind of,

02:59a slightly, I suppose, abrasive exchange

03:02between Anna Sarwa and John Swinney

03:04when it came to this,

03:05because Anna Sarwa was accusing the Scottish Government,

03:07the SNP, of being snooty and elitist

03:09when it came to colleges.

03:11And John Swinney sort of hit back

03:13by making a reference to the fact

03:15that Anna Sarwa was privately educated.

03:17He went to Hutchinson's Grammar School in Glasgow,

03:19and John Swinney was saying

03:20that he's a state school pupil,

03:23a proud state school pupil

03:24that's being lectured about elitism,

03:26effectively by someone who went to private school.

03:28So it's quite a personal attack.

03:30I would have thought that Anna Sarwa,

03:32when he's raising this kind of issue,

03:33might have considered that John Swinney

03:35might hit back with something like this

03:37and would have a kind of response to it ready.

03:39But it seemed to have taken them a little bit by surprise,

03:42or at least didn't really have anything to say to that.

03:45But, I mean, this is an issue

03:46that is very strong ground for Scottish Labour.

03:49I mean, that 20% real terms cut over five years

03:51is a number that speaks for itself.

03:53Audit Scotland, obviously the spending watchdog.

03:55You can't say that they are politically motivated.

03:59These are just facts and figures.

04:01And interestingly, actually,

04:02the Scottish Conservative leader, Russell Finlay,

04:04raised this as well in his First Minister's question,

04:07which is sort of about a kind of wider attack

04:11on the Scottish Government

04:12over the amount of disposable income

04:13that families have in Scotland.

04:15The Tories were saying this is the lowest since 2007.

04:18Obviously, there'll be several factors in that.

04:20John Swinney mentioned Brexit.

04:21I suppose the other very obvious one

04:23is the financial crash,

04:24which happened around that time,

04:25had a massive impact on living standards

04:27that we still haven't fully recovered from.

04:30But Russell Finlay,

04:32raising the cut to the colleges sector,

04:34also raising what he said was a tax double whammy.

04:36The Scots will face in a few months' time

04:39when it comes to the UK budget

04:41and the Scottish budget.

04:44And obviously, because,

04:45as people who have been glued

04:47to the Scotsman's website and paper will know,

04:49because of the timing of the UK budget,

04:52the Scottish budget is not expected

04:53to be published until January next year.

04:56But Russell Finlay asking John Swinney

04:58to rule out tax rises

05:00for working people in Scotland,

05:02and John Swinney effectively saying

05:03these are decisions that will be made in the budget.

05:05So very much a funding and finance team

05:08to First Minister's questions today.

05:10And we know on colleges,

05:12Fort Valley College,

05:14who is looking at the future of the Ellawar campus.

05:16There was a protest there the other week,

05:18a decision on whether to shut it,

05:20was postponed or delayed,

05:22but has not been taken off the table yet.

05:24So a clear example there

05:26of the ongoing pressure on colleges.

05:28Look, as I said,

05:29if you want to read either

05:31the latest on this horrific attack down in Manchester

05:35or Alistair Grant's report

05:38on the exchange over colleges

05:39between John Swinney and Anasawa,

05:41they're available at scotsman.com

05:43for all the very latest.

05:44Please follow us on social media

05:46and we'll have a full wrap

05:48of Scottish and UK politics in print

05:51in your Friday edition of the Scotsman.

05:53Alistair, thanks to you

05:54and thanks to everyone else for joining us.

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