First Minister John Swinney, Conservative leader Russell Findlay and Health Secretary Neil Gray, who is under attack about taking limos to football matches.
By Bill Heaney
Moves are afoot amongst opposition MSPs to persuade First Minister John Swinney to brandish a red card in the direction of Health Secretary Neil Gray over his failure to improve the performance of NHS Scotland.
However, not another political football will be kicked on that question until it is considered by the Holyrood equivalent of VAR, video assisted referees.
Conservative leader Russell Findlay was first to put the boot in. He said: “Last week, Scotland’s nurses issued a desperate and urgent warning about our broken national health service. Patients in extreme pain are stripped of their dignity and left for hours in accident and emergency departments.
“Waiting times for life-changing and life-saving operations keep going up. People are not able to get appointments for general practitioners or for dentists. Targets are being missed so often that they have become largely meaningless. Does John Swinney really still have confidence in his health secretary, Neil Gray?”
But Neil Gray’s future looks about as assured as that of Rangers’ football club manager Philippe Clement at Ibrox Park where a vote of confidence from a board of directors is as re-assuring as the kiss of death.
First Minister John Swinney said he was right behind Mr Gray: “The health secretary and I are deeply engaged in ensuring that there is effective leadership in place to support the national health service to recover from the implications of Covid some years ago and the severe implications of the flu that we have experienced in recent weeks. We are entirely focused on the challenge.”
But Russell Findlay was unconvinced. He said: “Our NHS is in a permanent state of turmoil, but Neil Gray is failing to do his job and is refusing to be straight with the public. This week, the health secretary admitted that he misled the Parliament.
“After taking taxpayer-funded limos to nine football matches, he claimed that they were all to discuss Government business. Crucially, he said that he had all the official notes to prove that, but it turns out that some of the notes do not exist—Neil Gray just made that up. That was his second formal apology to the Parliament. Surely long-suffering patients deserve honest leadership at this time of crisis.”
The First Minister replied: “On the national health service, I will tell it as it is. That is why the health secretary and I spent a large amount of time on Wednesday with a whole range of stakeholders from across the health sector, who will be crucial in helping us to support the national health service to navigate its way through the challenges that we face because of an ageing population and a significant increase in demand. That is what the health secretary and I are focused on. That is what we are doing this week, and that is what we will be doing henceforward.”
Howls of disapproval followed from the Holyrood terracing: “With that answer, the First Minister confirms that he is in a state of denial. He appears to have given a free pass to his distracted health secretary, no matter what he does.
“This afternoon, the planned national care service that Neil Gray is supposed to be in charge of will be scrapped, without having treated a single patient and with tens of millions of pounds down the drain.
“Neil Gray is giving Humza Yousaf and Michael Matheson a run for their money as the SNP’s worst health secretary. He misled Parliament, but he did not come clean straight away. The truth had to be dragged out of him by the Scottish Conservatives. I have a simple question: when exactly did John Swinney first know that Neil Gray had misled Parliament?”
The First Minister told him: “All those issues have been set out to Parliament. The health secretary made a statement to Parliament. He raised a point of order on Tuesday, when it was clear from the points that had been raised by the Conservative and Labour members that there was an issue in relation to his original statement. I have dealt with those questions accordingly.
“I say to Mr Findlay and to members of the public around the country that they should be assured that their First Minister and their health secretary are absolutely focused on delivering the leadership that is necessary to strengthen and to improve the national health service and to deliver for patients. That is my commitment to Parliament today.”
Russell Findlay persisted. He said: “That is just textbook John Swinney—failing to answer the most simple of questions. If we did not keep raising the issue, Neil Gray would never have admitted that he had misled Parliament over taxpayer-funded limos to the football.
“That flagrant breach must be investigated by the independent adviser on the ministerial code. John Swinney is standing by Neil Gray, just as he backed Michael Matheson and Humza Yousaf.
“Patients will continue to be let down by another dishonest, disgraced and distracted health secretary who is failing to bring down waiting lists.
“In the real world, if people cannot do their jobs properly or do not tell the truth, they get the sack. Is it not time for John Swinney to show some leadership by sending Neil Gray—in a chauffeur-driven limo, if he likes—to collect his P45?”
The First Minister pressed on: “It is important that we put this matter in its proper context. The issue that Neil Gray had to address in Parliament on Tuesday revolved around one word that was inserted in his answer to Stephen Kerr [Tory MSP for Stirling] during his parliamentary statement. That one word was the word “all”—a three-letter word—
“In his answer to Neil Bibby and in his original parliamentary statement, there was no issue about the language used by Neil Gray. In one answer, Neil Gray used one word that he should not have used—the word “all”.
“On the basis of that fact, I judge that Neil Gray, in taking the action that he has taken, has acted entirely appropriately in his responsibilities to Parliament and in accordance with the ministerial code. Of course, it is up to the independent advisers whom I have appointed to take a different view from the one that I have taken—I will be inviting my independent advisers to consider the view that I have taken, and they will be free to take that decision.
“That is why I have strengthened the ministerial code, it is why I have strengthened the independent advisers and it is why I have appointed three individuals of eminent reputation to make sure that they can scrutinise these questions.
“Fundamentally, what matters to the people of Scotland today is that they have a Government that is focused on the concerns of the people, on making sure that we strengthen the national health service and on bringing down waiting times.
“That is the focus of the First Minister and the health secretary. The Conservatives do not care about that, but I certainly do.”
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