By Bill Heaney
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: “Scotland cannot afford this distracted, divided, and incompetent SNP Government. Our country is facing the greatest challenges since the creation of this Parliament. “
He told the Holyrood parliament today: ““Over 800,000 people on an NHS waiting list, increasing violence and falling standards in our schools, police numbers being cut and crimes not being investigated, almost 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation, millions of pounds wasted on failed projects and our economy flatlining while the huge potential of our people is squandered. But yet again the SNP are putting party before country.
“When our country is crying out for change what is the SNP’s answer?
“An internal stitch up and more of the same. The man who broke the public finances. Who was the worst education secretary in the history of the Scottish Parliament.
“Who was the Deputy First Minister who deleted evidence meant for the Covid Inquiry. And the man who has been at the heart of this incompetent SNP Government for the past seventeen years.
“Or the former Finance Secretary who it seems would be more at home in Douglas Ross’ party than her own. Both represent chaos. Both represent division. Both represent more of the same. We need a Government that is focused on fixing the mess the SNP have made.
“For all the First Minister’s bluster, he can’t ignore the fact that there are people re-mortgaging their homes to pay for hip replacements.
“There are mothers going without food so their children have enough to eat. There are families travelling South to get their child a private mental health diagnosis. And cash strapped families are being made to pay more and get less from their public services.
“But what’s the SNP focussed on? Just desperately trying to cling on to power.
“They are so divided, so chaotic and so dysfunctional that they can’t provide the stable, competent government our country needs.
“The SNP fears the judgement of the Scottish people – we need an election now.”