Adam Tomkins

MSP FOR GLASGOW

The Scottish Parliament of which I was elected a member in May is more powerful and has more responsibility than any of its predecessors.

Not only will the SNP government run our NHS, our education system and the police but it will also hold substantial new powers over taxation and social security.

You could be forgiven for thinking that, with a staffing crisis in our hospitals and growing concerns over the SNP’s soft-touch approach to justice, these serious issues would grab the First Minister’s attention.

However, depressingly, the newspapers are full of speculation about socalled indyref2.

Mike Russell, the Scottish Government’s new Brexit minister, accused my party of being obsessed by the prospect of a second referendum.

The truth is that the Scottish Conservatives are obsessed with doing what we were elected to do. That is to keep Nicola Sturgeon to her promise that the referendum was a once-in-a-generation event and to encourage the SNP to focus on what really matters to families in our communities.

For it is not the constitution that concerns the people I meet at my surgeries across the Glasgow region. There is no groundswell of support for independence.

Polls consistently show that support for the UK remains above 50 per cent but there is grave concern about local health services and keeping our communities safe from crime.

The Scottish Govern- ment are presiding over a funding crisis that forced NHS Lanarkshire to spend £16.1million on locum doctors and nurses last year, with the figure for Greater Glasgow and Clyde standing at £72.4m.

This is your hard-earned money that is being wasted on treating the symptoms of their crisis, rather than on properly staffing our hospitals in the first place.

I am sure that readers also share my deep concern when figures revealed last week that 7 per cent of those convicted of rape in Scotland last year were not even sent to prison. This is an outrage to the victims, to their families and to the sense of justice which underpins our society.

It is time to focus on what really matters to families. That is protecting our communities and our health service, not a second referendum.

We are the strong opposition we promised to be as we ensure that your priorities are at the top of the Scottish Government’s agenda, even whilst the SNP would rather dream on about independence.