SNP and Tories should fear 2024 after another year of chaos and mismanagement – Jackie Baillie

Amid unacceptable NHS waiting times, the number of patients funding their own treatment has gone up by more than 70 per cent

I must admit I started 2023 with only some of the qualities Nicola Sturgeon claimed to possess. She was, in her New Year message last year, looking forward with “optimism and resolve”.

Within weeks, she was gone and my resolve to have a Labour government began to turn to optimism. I was hopeful before the First Minister suddenly stepped down. I was hopeful before the SNP lost 30,000 members; before the blue tent; before the arrests; before the campervan.

I was hopeful before the nationalists split over their next leader; before Ash Regan left for Alba; before the stunning swing in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election; before the £11,000 iPad bill; before the £1.5 billion hole in the budget. I was hopeful at the beginning of 2023 and, yes, now I am optimistic.

Victory for Michael Shanks, seen with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election sent a message to both the SNP and the Conservatives (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

The SNP’s year-long pantomime has been a distraction from the job of government and a drag anchor on a country that the party of government is incapable of moving forwards. Their internal chaos is a mirror of the incompetence of ministers who have been unable to turn around their stray shopping trolley of a political party, far less the ship of state.

NHS on its knees

A staggering one in seven Scots, over 828,000 patients, are stuck on NHS waiting lists, waiting for appointments and pain relief. One in four cancer patients face unacceptable treatment delays.

Increasingly, we're witnessing more Scots going private for healthcare with a 72 per cent rise in the number of patients funding their own treatment. It is understandable that people make decisions that are best for themselves but the figure is not the indicator of an equitable or progressive country.

Turmoil is the new normal with a third of A&E patients waiting more than four hours to be seen. Long waiting times, deteriorating services, hospitals running hot and staff working beyond exhaustion have brought the NHS to its knees. All of this is driven by a lack of resources, direction and political leadership. NHS staff do an amazing job but they are being failed by the government.

It’s not just in health, my beat, that the country is being failed. The next generation is being failed in education with Scotland continuing to slip down international education rankings. The SNP has had a deaf ear to business, the growth engine of the economy for years. The pitiable announcements in this month’s budget will do little to comfort the hospitality sector, the creative industries and the businesses which we rely on to grow the tax base the SNP seems intent on punishing.

Inevitably, confirmation of the Westminster budget date on March 6 has led to speculation about a May election. That will grow to be a wave of intrigue in the New Year but the day cannot come soon enough. There is nothing the Tories can do to repair the damage they have done to the economy. The sooner they are gone the better.

Labour will be ready to replace a scandal-ridden Conservative government whenever an election is called. We are working hard, preparing to do the same in Scotland when the time comes. So, 2024 is a year we have long waited for. I am looking forward, to borrow a phrase, with optimism and resolve.

Jackie Baillie MSP is Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson and deputy leader