Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay has told the First Minister to “get back to the day job” after he delivered a speech on Scottish independence.
During an address in Edinburgh on Thursday morning, John Swinney said another vote on Scotland’s constitutional future “has never been more important”.
It came after the release of a Scottish Government paper which urges the UK Government to “make a clear commitment to respect the people of Scotland’s right to decide their future”.
But at First Minister’s Questions later on Thursday, Mr Russell – under pressure after two MSPs quit his party in recent weeks – urged the Scottish Government to focus on issues like the health service and drug deaths, accusing ministers of using independence as a distraction.
“We know his game, he knows exactly what he is up to, he’s desperately trying to get the focus off the SNP’s dismal record of failure on the economy, schools, ferries, drugs, crime, health, everything else,” the Tory leader said.
“This week he cynically focuses on independence and international affairs, isn’t it time he got back to the day job?”
Scottish Labour said Mr Swinney’s independence speech proves “the NHS will never be his priority”.
Leader Anas Sarwar accused the First Minister of “using independence to hide from his failures and desperately trying to cling on to power”.
“But it is not going to work,” Mr Sarwar said.
“Over the summer we have seen NHS waiting lists soar to include almost 900,000 Scots, over 100,000 Scots now waiting over a year to be seen on the NHS, and record levels of people paying for their own procedures due to this Government’s failures, and Scotland still having the highest rate of drug deaths in Europe.”
He said Scotland “deserves a First Minister whose number one priority will be fixing our NHS”.
Mr Sarwar added: “It is clear that John Swinney and his knackered Government are totally out of touch with the reality facing Scots.”
The First Minister responded by saying he had led a debate on his Government’s priorities, adding that waiting times for inpatient care are falling, as are drug deaths – though the latter is expected to rise in the coming years – while exam results this year were the best since 2019.
“What the Scottish Government is doing is delivering on the priorities of the people of Scotland, that’s what my Government is focused on,” Mr Swinney said.
“I want to make sure that Scotland is not inhibited by the failures of Westminster and that we have the ability to choose the democratic future of independence, and I’m confident the people of Scotland will make that choice.”
