Labour candidate Jackie Baillie has accused the SNP of leaving “a 20-year trail of broken promises” after analysis revealed that two-thirds of the party’s manifesto promises have been left by the wayside.
It has emerged that, of the 90 headline manifesto pledges made in 2021, the SNP has failed to deliver on a whopping 57 of them.
Key promises which have not been followed through, include:
- Ditched plans for a National Care Service and a failure to scrap all non-residential care services
- A failure to deliver promised NHS National Treatment Centres, increase investment in mental health services or deliver free dental charges
- Failed to deliver the target of 100,000 affordable homes
- Broken promise not to hike income taxes
- Failure to roll out free wraparound childcare
- Missed the target to increase teacher numbers, and a failure to roll out free school meals to all primary schools
- Provision of a free laptop or tablet and internet connection to every school pupil in Scotland.
There are also several areas – such as tackling drug deaths, ending rough sleeping, closing the attainment gap and youth opportunities – where the SNP has spent millions but failed to deliver improvements or where progress has actively gone backwards.
Scottish Labour said John Swinney and the SNP have been exposed as “fraudsters” and criticised them for trying to “dupe voters” with another round of half-baked policy ideas.
Scottish Labour’s Deputy Leader, Jackie Baillie, said: “The SNP has proved itself unreliable. The party has broken two-thirds of its key promises from the last election – bungling the National Care Service, driving our NHS deeper into crisis, betraying the next generation and hiking taxes on working people.”
Top of page: Jackie Baillie campaigning in Balloch with friends for the May 7 election for the Scottish Parliament.