GET ON WITH THE DAY JOB, NICOLA

FM is urged to focus on NHS, education and drugs toll, not indy obsession

INDEPENDENCE would not act as a ‘silver bullet’ to all of the problems caused by SNP rule, Nicola Sturgeon has been warned.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said the Nationalists’ obsession with another referendum would see the pressing issues Scots face playing ‘second fiddle’.

He said the First Minister should focus on fixing the ferries shambles, soaring NHS waiting times, education standards and the growing backlog in Scotland’s court system.

The Scottish Government has come under mounting criticism over its botched deal to build two ferries, with costs spiralling to £240million and the vessels years overdue.

Scotland’s poverty-related attainment gap is also at record levels despite Miss Sturgeon pledging it was her ‘defining mission’ to substantially close it.

She yesterday claimed independence could be a ‘solution’ to these problems and blamed a ‘failing UK system’, despite her Government already having powers over transport, health, justice and education.

Speaking at First Minister’s Questions, Mr Ross said: ‘The SNP Government have said they want to hold another divisive independence referendum in October next year. But

‘She claims referendum is a silver bullet’

Nicola Sturgeon can’t even say whether ferries will float by then.

‘She won’t have closed the school attainment gap by then, she won’t have returned NHS services to normal by then, and she won’t have cleared the court backlogs by then.

‘So, First Minister, why should all these pressing issues play second fiddle to another divisive independence referendum next year?’

Miss Sturgeon said the case for independence was not ‘distinct or separate’ from the big challenges facing Scotland.

She added: ‘Instead, independence is part of the solution to those challenges; it’s about how we equip ourselves better as a country to meet those challenges and fulfil our potential.

‘It’s not the distraction that Douglas Ross wants to pretend it is. Instead, it presents an alternative to a failing UK system.’

In the first exchange between the two party leaders since the First Minister and Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie launched their prospectus for independence, Mr Ross said: ‘Her priorities are all wrong at the worst possible moment.

‘We’ve just gone through a pandemic, war in Europe has hiked energy prices, there’s a global cost of living crisis. It’s a time to pull together – and focus on improving public services, on creating jobs, on restoring schools, on fighting crime, on supporting our NHS.

‘Instead of focusing on what really matters, Nicola Sturgeon tries to claim another divisive referendum is a silver bullet that would magically fix all the issues her government has created.

Shamefully, the SNP’s obsession with a referendum next year is more important to her than the people of Scotland’s priorities.’

Mr Ross also suggested drug deaths would ‘spiral’ if the First Minister focused on the constitution instead of the health crisis.

Almost 300 suspected drug deaths were recorded in the first three months of this year.

Mr Ross said: ‘We know the First Minister cannot focus on improving our country when she is trying to divide it all over again.

‘Nicola Sturgeon is distracted all over again, and we know what happens next. Every time the SNP campaigns for another referendum, Scotland’s drugs deaths spiral. The First Minister has admitted it herself – she took her eye off the ball and people lost their lives. And the latest figures show Nicola Sturgeon’s drugs deaths scandal remains the worst in Europe.’

Calling for Miss Sturgeon to support his Bill for a Right to Recovery for drug addicts, he said: ‘Why should a referendum Bill be passed before you sort out Scotland’s drugs deaths scandal?’

Miss Sturgeon said ministers would look ‘very sympathetically’ at the Bill.

NICOLA Sturgeon insists that independence is ‘part of the solution’ to the ‘big challenges’ facing Scotland – a claim that stretches credulity to breaking-point.

There is no dispute over the scale of those problems – from the scandal of incomplete ferries to the country’s rail system in meltdown and hospital waiting lists spiralling out of control.

Failing schools are also testament to broken SNP pledges to narrow the pupil attainment gap, which the First Minister once claimed was her priority in office.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross was right to tell her at Holyrood yesterday that tackling these pressing issues would ‘play second fiddle to another divisive independence referendum’.

And his claim that her priorities are ‘all wrong at the worst possible moment’ is incontestable. He was also correct to warn that independence is not a ‘silver bullet that would magically fix all the issues her government has created’.

Instead it would plunge Scotland into a nightmarish process of extraction from a thriving partnership that has endured for more than 300 years – putting us firmly on a course for economic devastation.

Rather than agitate for yet another divisive poll, Miss Sturgeon should attempt to fix the mounting problems in her own backyard – and stop trying to blame Westminster.