To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s position is on whether teacher numbers should be maintained, in light of the reported concerns of many parents, pupils and school staff in Glasgow. (S6F-03176)

We remain fully committed to protecting teacher numbers and are offering local authorities £145.5 million in this year’s budget for that purpose. That funding will allow councils to protect teacher numbers in order to support children’s education. I hope that our local government partners share that goal. The Government remains determined to close the poverty-related attainment gap and to reduce teacher workload, and I do not believe that those aims will be achieved by councils employing fewer teachers in our schools. We are currently in discussion with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and wish to work with our local authority partners to deliver our shared commitments on education.

I thank the First Minister for that answer, but I am afraid that it will be cold comfort for teachers, parents and pupils in Glasgow, because the reality is that his Scottish National Party and Green colleagues there are slashing teacher numbers, which impacts the poorest and most disadvantaged pupils the most. It is not the first time that that has happened on the First Minister’s watch. As one young person said at the most recent rally against the cuts, the First Minister owes it to young people to intervene after his decision in the 2020 exams fiasco resulted in the downgrading of the poorest pupils.

Today, the First Minister has talked about Parliament endorsements. On 15 May, Parliament sided with teachers, parents and pupils and endorsed calls on the Government to intervene and protect job losses. What exactly is the First Minister’s Government doing to deliver the will of Parliament, and when will the jobs be saved?

Obviously, those are matters for individual local authorities to take forward. That is the constitutional arrangement in this country, which ensures that the delivery of education is a matter within the competence of local authorities.

Pam Duncan-Glancy asked me what the Government is doing to help with that situation: the Government is offering £145.5 million to local authorities to protect teacher numbers. That is what the Government is doing.

I have to say that I find Pam Duncan-Glancy’s concerns about this rather difficult to accept. If the Labour Party had its budget proposals accepted in the city of Glasgow—£30 million cuts in education on Glasgow City Council—that could have meant the loss of up to 650 teachers. The Labour Party’s proposition to people in this election is to prolong austerity—that is what Labour will carry on with. There will be no new money coming along the track, there will be prolonged austerity and Labour will continue where the Tories have left off. When the Labour Party is in council chambers around the country, it wants to reduce teacher numbers by 650. That is just unacceptable. The Scottish Government is doing what it can to support local authorities to protect teacher numbers, and we will engage with local authorities to enable that.

In 2021, the SNP promised not merely to maintain teacher numbers but to deliver an additional 3,500 teachers and classroom assistants. However, the latest data shows that there are 250 fewer teachers than there were when that promise was made. Will the First Minister confirm that, like the laptops, bikes and free meals, that is another broken promise?

You know, when they were giving out brass necks, they gave them out in abundance to that part of the chamber—[ Interruption .]

Members!

Since 2021, two significant factors have undermined the public finances in the United Kingdom. The first has been the rampant inflation that has eroded the value of public sector budgets. Although inflation is lower today than it was a year ago, prices are still very much higher because of the effect of double-digit inflation—the first time that we have that in the United Kingdom for over 40 years.

The second thing that has happened is that the cost of investing in and supporting our public services has gone through the roof, because of the mistakes that were made by Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng in that ridiculous statement to the House of Commons. [ Interruption .]

Members!

I have to say to Liam Kerr that it is preposterous for the Conservatives to come here and demand that I do more and spend more money when the consequence of their management of the United Kingdom economy has been so damaging to Scotland’s interests.

We now move to constituency and general supplementaries.