PM slates SNP’ dismal record
Get on with the day job, says May, as she savages party on schools and NHS
THERESA May yesterday urged the SNP to ‘get back to the day job’ as she launched a savage attack on its record on the NHS and education.
The Prime Minister accused Nicola Sturgeon of failing to put as much money into the health service as she has been given by the UK Government.
She criticised the SNP’s record in charge of schools, pointing out that education standards are falling north of the Border.
Her vitriolic onslaught on the record of the Nationalist government comes as SNP leaders insist that June’s General Election will be a ‘two-horse race’ between the Nationalists and the Tories.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs May promised to be out ‘campaigning in every part of the United Kingdom’ in the run-up to the election and said she planned to highlight the ‘proud record of a Conservative Government that has delivered for every part of the United Kingdom’.
Referring to the SNP, she said: ‘Now is the time for them to put aside their tunnel vision on independence and actually explain to the Scottish people why the SNP Government are not putting as much money into the health service as they have been given from the UK, they are not exercising the powers they have been given and Scottish education is getting worse.
‘It is time they got back to the day job.’
Mrs May has made it a personal mission to highlight the SNP’s failings in devolved areas and the work her Government does for the whole of the UK.
At the Scottish Conservative conference last month, she derided the SNP’s record in government, particularly on health, education and the economy.
She also indicated that the UK Government could formally raise concerns with the Scottish Government if it is ‘neglecting and mismanaging public services’ north of the Border.
She said: ‘We are all diminished when any part of the UK is held back, and we share in the success when we prosper. In government that principle is called collective responsibility.
‘We need to build a new collective responsibility across the United Kingdom, which unites all layers of government, to work positively together to improve the lives of everyone in our country.’
Mrs May made her comments after SNP deputy leader Angus Robertson had claimed she was ‘running scared’ of taking part in a live televised debate with opposition leaders including Miss Sturgeon.
He said: ‘If the Prime Minister is so confident that her hard Brexit,
‘Tunnel vision on independence’
pro-austerity, anti-immigration case is right, she should debate it with Opposition leaders during the campaign.
‘We look forward to the straight fight between the Scottish National Party and the Tories.
‘Will the Prime Minister tell the people why she is running scared of a televised debate with Nicola Sturgeon?’
In the later debate about the decision to call a snap election, Mr Robertson again attempted to portray the election as a straight battle between the SNP and the Tories in Scotland.
He said: ‘In Scotland, the General Election will be a twohorse race – a straight fight between the SNP and the Tories.
‘Do I think mainstream Scots, regardless of whether they voted Remain or Leave, will vote for a hard Tory Brexit? No, I do not. Do I think most mainstream Scots will vote for more austerity and cuts in public services? No, I do not.
‘Do I think most Scots will vote for a party that is actively undermining the mandate already given by the voters in a Scottish General Election for people in Scotland to determine their future? No, I do not.’
Mr Robertson added: ‘We on these benches will work hard for every vote in every seat in Scotland, and we look forward to defeating the Tories.’
Scottish Secretary David Mundell also denied SNP claims that it was hypocritical of the UK Government to call a snap election while rejecting Nationalist demands for an independence referendum.
He said: ‘It had become clear that having a General Election as was scheduled in 2020 would not allow us to have the maximum flexibility going into the Brexit negotiations. It would bring uncertainty and instability during that process.
‘Therefore what the Prime Minister has concluded, and it is reluctantly, to bring that stability, that certainty, the security going forward, it is better to have an election now then have a five-year
period in which the negotiations and implementation can take place.’
Asked if it was ‘hypocrisy’, he said: ‘It isn’t because the propositions are completely different.
‘Theresa May is proposing a vote in six weeks’ time to allow people to set out the direction of the Brexit negotiations, to have a five-year period in which to take Brexit forward.
‘Nicola Sturgeon is proposing a divisive referendum campaign during the Brexit negotiations. She actually wants to be campaigning for independence in Scotland during the period in which this country is engaged in the most extensive post-war negotiations.
‘That’s why it is inappropriate to have a referendum during the Brexit negotiation process.
‘This General Election is to be held over a six-week period and then the negotiation process will begin.’