Commenting after giving his support to a no-confidence motion against Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater MSP, Highlands and Islands MSP and Conservative Shadow Minister for Business Trade Tourism and Enterprise, Jamie Halcro Johnston said:
“I fully support the motion of no confidence in Lorna Slater and efforts to remove the minister responsible for the shambolic rollout of the Scottish Deposit Return Scheme.
“Despite warnings from industry and from opposition parties, Lorna Slater pushed on with her reckless implementation of this scheme, ignoring the clear evidence that things were going badly wrong and too many questions remained unanswered.
“That left many local businesses in limbo, forcing them to spend money and resource making often difficult preparations for a scheme the Scottish Government has now chosen to ditch.
“It’s estimated that businesses had already, in good faith, spent a total of over £300m preparing for the scheme, and many won’t see a return on that any time soon. That puts jobs and livelihoods at risk.
“While Lorna Slater should have accepted her responsibility for her actions and resigned, when it became clear she wasn’t going to, Humza Yousaf should have shown some backbone and sacked her.
“Unfortunately, he is too weak – and too reliant on the Scottish Greens - to take the necessary action, and so it has been left to the Scottish Conservatives to table this vote of no confidence in Lorna Slater.
“I just hope SNP MSPs will recognise the serious damage and uncertainty this scheme has caused and, putting Scottish businesses ahead of their Bute House agreement with the militant Greens, will back our motion to sack Lorna Slater”.
