Our collective efforts have helped secure the welcome progress that Scotland has made over the past few weeks in tackling the Omicron variant of COVID. This progress is real and I am hopeful it can be sustained in the weeks ahead.

I know that many people will now be enjoying getting back to normal again - and getting to go to concerts, shows, sporting occasions and other events.

However, to make sure we keep moving in the right direction, it is important that we still exercise appropriate care and caution. Protective measures like wearing face coverings and doing lateral flow tests before going out and socialising help keep us safe.

Taking these basic precautions help us protect each other, whilst allowing us all to get on with our daily lives – and most importantly, it protects those who are still at a high risk of catching the virus and getting seriously ill.

As we look forward, and towards a cautious return to normality, I will do all I can to ensure that Scotland’s recovery addresses the impact of the pandemic on the most vulnerable and tackles some of the the deep-seated inequalities in our society.

The last two years have seen the greatest period of upheaval in our society and economy since the Second World War - and our economic response must be ambitious if we are to build a fair, green and sustainable recovery.

However, we currently face challenging economic circumstances, with rising inflation and increased costs of living. As with Covid itself, the impacts of this will not be equal across society.

Amidst a perfect storm of Tory cuts, tax hikes, rising energy bills and inflation, and falling wages, the Resolution Foundation has warned that 2022 will be the ‘year of the squeeze’ The cost of living crisis is increasing on an almost daily basis. From April, average household bills are set to rise by around £700. Food poverty campaigner Jack Monroe, in a striking Twitter thread last week, illustrated the shockingly steep price increases in basic supermarkets items like pasta, rice and baked beans.

It’s clear that these rapidly rising costs will hit the poorest families in our society hardest – and emergency measures to support households must be taken by the Westminster government, which holds many of the key powers needed to make a difference. The Scottish Government will do everything we can to mitigate the rising costs hitting families across the country – with direct support such as our £41 million winter fund, a range of new benefits aimed at low-income households, and the doubling of the Scottish Child Payment to £20 a week.

We have also written to the UK Government outlining the urgent action we believe they can and must take to tackle rising energy bills, which I know people across the country are worried about.

However, key powers do currently remain reserved to Westminster – including around 85% of welfare expenditure, and damaging Tory policies like the £20 cut to Universal Credit continue to undermine the progress we are trying to deliver in Scotland.

In fact, new research which shows that the Scottish Government is being forced to spend almost £600 million per year just to mitigate policies imposed upon us by the UK government – including the so-called ‘bedroom tax.’ Despite the rapidly rising cost of living, we also have a government at Westminster totally preoccupied with self-inflicted scandal, and a Prime Minister focussed only on saving his own skin rather than on supporting the thousands of households struggling to heat their homes and put food on the table. It is the basic duty of any government to protect people from poverty and deliver support – yet we are currently grappling with a real crisis which the Prime Minister refuses to lift a finger to tackle.

It’s clear that Boris Johnson is too caught up in scandal to do the basics of his job – and at this most critical of times, as we continue our path through Covid and face the cost of living crisis, he has lost the trust of people across the UK.

If Boris Johnson cares about the needs and interests of people across the country, he will do the decent thing and step aside.

Of course, while the conduct of the current inhabitant of Downing Street raises real issues about character and integrity, the issue is much deeper and more fundamental than the shortcomings of Boris Johnson as an individual. That he was able to become PM in the first place poses real questions for the Tory party. But it also shines a very harsh light on the culture of entitlement and contempt that seems to pervade the whole Westminster system.

Time and again, Scotland finds itself at the mercy of parties and leaders at Westminster that we don’t support but who still get to impose damaging policies and decisions upon us. We can do so much better than that.

Independence is not a magic wand for any nation. But for Scotland, it would put our future in our own hands and allow us to build a better country, together.