Condemnation of the Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer’s Praise of the Legacy of the Thatcher Administration

That the Parliament condemns the reported comments of the Leader of the Opposition of the UK Parliament, Sir Keir Starmer, suggesting that the UK Conservative administration led by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher brought "meaningful change" to the UK; considers that, throughout this period, the then UK Conservative administration allowed the failure of British Steel's mill at Gartcosh, the Invergordon aluminium smelter and the Corpach pulp mill, and that this would further lead to the closure of Ravenscraig steelworks, which it believes signalled the end of large-scale steel making in Scotland and resulted in a direct loss of 770 jobs, and another 10,000 jobs that were linked to those; recognises what it sees as the blatant injustice of the "poll tax" being introduced in Scotland, which provoked protests and demonstrations and non-payment, and considers that this resulted in the campaign for a Scottish Parliament, as a democratic advance became something that it believes was absolutely essential to protect Scotland.