A bus firm owner has accused First Minister John Swinney of behaving like a dictator over his government’s plans to bring buses under public control.
Sandy Easdale, who owns McGill’s with his brother James, said Mr Swinney “appears to have transformed into the next Idi Amin or Robert Mugabe” and noted that “both men bankrupted their countries through catastrophic financial policies.”
Mr Swinney told the SNP conference on Saturday that buses would be brought under public control by 2031 through franchising and regulation, with a Bill tabled in Holyrood next year.
It is understood regional transport partnerships will be set up to have greater control over routes and fares without the government having to actively own the buses.
Mr Easdale was said to be “incensed” by the announcement and pledged to fight “in every court in the land” to stop the SNP reversing Margaret Thatcher’s deregulation of the industry 40 years ago.
Ralph Roberts, chief executive and director of McGill’s, said in a television interview that the Easdales had invested in local services.
“McGill’s has never been publicly owned,” he said. “There is nothing to ‘bring back’ into public control in our case.”
Mr Roberts argued that removing an operator’s ability to run the network it had established and putting services out to competitive tender amounted to “business confiscation” and accused the SNP government of failing to engage in dialogue.
“You can understand why the owners refer to African dictators because that’s how it feels from their perspective.
“I’ve put forward a number of different alternative ways for the authorities or government to take control of bus services if that’s what they want to do.”
Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth promised to work with bus companies on the plans. Speaking on the same show, she said: “Fundamentally, we’re trying to protect our people, and across the country just now we see a number of routes having been removed.”
Ms Gilruth said the current private bus model was “a legacy of Thatcher’s time when she took away that opportunity for there to be direct intervention from the state” on bus routes. So we’re going back to an approach that better protects people.”
She mentioned Lothian Buses, which is publicly-run, as an example of good practice.
The Easdales are major donors to the Labour party which is taking railways in England into public ownership.
At the SNP conference, Mr Swinney announced the extension of the £2 bus fare cap, with Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire to be covered from April.
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