In October Rachel Reeves delivered the first Labour budget in in 14 years – a budget that decisively ended austerity and set to work cleaning up the mess the Tories made of public finances.
This delivered a the largest budget settlement for Scotland in the history of devolution, boosting funding by £5.2 billion. That’s £5.2 billion more for hospitals, schools, roads, policing and more.
It’s investment to renew our crumbling infrastructure and support local growth projects. After 14 years of Tory chaos and cuts, this funding should be transformative.
But the fact is our public services will continue to suffer from the consequences of SNP incompetence. On Tuesday, the SNP government will pass another budget.
After months of brinkmanship and amateur dramatics from John Swinney, the worst kept secret in Scottish politics came out and the Lib Dems and the Greens confirmed they were backing the budget.
This budget was always going to pass, and I don’t want to stand in the way of Labour’s £5.2 billion budget boost reaching frontline services. But what is clear is that this budget will not deliver the change in direction Scotland really needs.
The SNP – and most of the time John Swinney himself – have been passing budgets for almost 18 years, and things have only got worse. John Swinney remains in denial about the scale of challenge we face and the damage his party has inflicted on our public services.
We’ve had no acknowledgement from the SNP about the need for reform and no vision for the future of our country. Instead, they are planning to keep doing more of the same and hoping for better results.
I hope Labour’s £5.2 billion increase to the budget will help to mitigate some of the damage done by SNP incompetence – but I know this opportunity will be wasted.
Instead of using this funding to fix the fundamental weaknesses in our public services and our economy, the SNP will squander it on short-term sticking plasters and wasteful mismanagement.
This is a government that has ran out of steam and ran out of ideas. It’s not thinking about the long-term sustainability of our public services – how to make our NHS fit for the future or make our schools world-class once again.
All the SNP is trying to do is make it from one crisis to another. We see it all too clearly in our NHS, where the consequences of SNP failure are devastating.
Almost 1 in 6 Scots are stuck on an NHS waiting list, 100,000 are waiting more than a year, thousands are facing dangerously long waits in A&E every week, and many are forced to empty their bank accounts to go private.
We’ve had five NHS recovery plans from the SNP in less than four years, so John Swinney’s latest pledge to personally tackle this crisis rings hollow.
Our NHS is on life support but all the SNP has to offer is empty rhetoric. We will deliver a new direction for our NHS where we will clear the backlogs, make sure it is there when you need it and fit for the future.
The truth is the SNP is not being honest with Scots about the state of Scotland’s public services and need for reform. The need for a new direction could not be clearer and in 2026 we have the chance to deliver just that.
Brand Scotland
One of Scotland’s great economic assets is our world famous international brand. From food and drink to arts and culture to tourism, Brand Scotland is known across the globe.
This not only provides us with a huge economic opportunity, but gives us immense soft power. Last week I hosted a Scots in the City reception in London where we discussed how we utilise brand Scotland to create opportunities and deliver benefits to the people of Scotland.
We don’t need to sell Scotland to the Scots – we already know how much talent, resource and potential our country has because we see it daily.
What I want to do is focus on how we sell Scotland to the rest of the world – how we use Brand Scotland to attract investment, boost exports and support our key industries.
Ian Murray has already transformed the Scotland Office and put promoting Brand Scotland at its heart, but we need a Scottish Government with this mission too.
A Scottish Labour government – working hand in hand with a Labour-run Scotland Office – would be relentlessly focused on making deals and delivering for Scotland.
We will maximise the opportunities of Brand Scotland to attract more investment in to Scotland, more exports out of Scotland more opportunities for the people of Scotland.
Our country has unique potential and Scottish Labour is determined to unlock it.
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