Peter's constituency contains Cardenden and Kinglassie.

Hard Tory Brexit

'Immediately before the half term recess we had five full days of debate on the Government’s Brexit proposals. This sounds like a lot of time but in reality it meant 80% of Scotland’s MPs never got a chance to speak.

The SNP tabled 50 amendments out of over 100 in total. The Government refused to consider any of them, insisting on rushing through one of the most important Bills in recent history with the bare minimum of Parliamentary scrutiny.

We now know that the Government’s preferred option is for a full scale Hard Tory Brexit. Despite a manifesto promise to “safeguard Britain’s interests in the Single Market” they have decided, without consultation, to take us out of the Single Market altogether. This could mean our businesses face crippling import and export tariffs. It will almost certainly mean it’s harder to recruit skilled workers from the EU and harder for UK citizens to live and work in the EU in future.

All of this has happened because of the Tories’ obsession with immigration statistics. By pandering to the xenophobes in their own and other parties they are running the risk of setting back our economic growth by years.

No Thank You, Mr President

The UK Government made a huge error of judgement in rushing to invite Donald Trump to make a full State Visit later this year. It’s unheard of for a president to get such an invitation so early in his term of office. Mr Trump received Theresa May’s invitation at almost exactly the same time as he was announcing the Islamophobic travel ban which has been condemned all over the world.

During an urgent debate in Parliament I warned that Mr Trump’s actions were playing into the hands of terrorist groups such as DAESH by alienating young Muslims and making them more susceptible to indoctrination.

The Prime Minister can invite any Head of Government to visit her but it was wrong to invite him as Head of State to meet the Queen. It was also ludicrous to suggest that he be invited to address both houses of Parliament in a speech in Westminster Hall. That honour has been given to only a handful of foreign visitors before. It should not be extended to a president whose racist, sexist and homophobic outbursts are an embarrassment to his country'.