Douglas Ross accuses SNP of choosing to ‘pat itself on the back’ following first 100 days debate

Douglas Ross has accused the SNP of choosing to “pat itself on the back” following a debate on the first 100 days of the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Tories leader criticised the Scottish Government after a Holyrood debate that saw Deputy First Minister John Swinney praise all the SNP’s achievements so far.

The debate was put forward by the Scottish Government on Tuesday and called “First 100 Days – Delivering for the People of Scotland”.

Mr Swinney said: “In the 100 days after the First Minister was elected by Parliament, we have applied a clear focus to delivering 81 priorities in that programme that would materially improve the health, safety, security and wellbeing of the people of Scotland.

Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross accused the Scottish Government of "patting itself on the back".

“This is a significant achievement and one which clearly demonstrates that this is a government committed to delivering on its promises to the people of Scotland.

“Through the 100 days’ commitments, we invested in jobs and our economy, both to mitigate the harmful effects of Westminster’s Brexit and to help Scotland recover from the pandemic.”

The commitments included consulting on the creation of a National Care Service to improve social care, funding for 1,000 extra teachers and 500 pupil support assistants and publishing a recovery plan for the NHS.

Other measures included £25 million to help small and medium businesses, free NHS dental care for all young people under 26 years old and opening three new rapid cancer diagnostic centres.

However, Mr Ross dismissed the achievements and accused the Deputy First Minister of a “poor” speech.

He said: “We could be debating how best to tackle the NHS treatment backlog or how to deliver a strong economic recovery or the future of Scottish education.

“But instead this SNP Government chose to pat itself on the back.

“Bereft of ideas to sort out the mess they have made of this country, they would rather pretend everything was great and hope if they say it enough, people will believe it.

“The SNP have already had 14 years in government and their record over the last decade-and-a-half is no better than that since the election in May.”

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