National Health Service

Part of First Minister’s Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 10 October 2024.

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Photo of John Swinney John Swinney Scottish National Party

—from the Conservative Government places significant challenges on our resources, but we have exceeded the amount of money that was allocated through the Barnett formula to the health service because of the commitment of this Government.

Mr Sarwar thinks that it would help to follow his approach on taxation, which would reduce public expenditure in Scotland by £1.5 billion. That would not help the national health service one little bit. On funding, as the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said when he was in opposition,

“All roads do lead back to Westminster”.

We will wait to find out what the budget tells us when the Parliament comes back after the October recess. Let us see whether the Labour Party breaks with austerity and whether Labour is prepared to invest, because what Mr Sarwar has put to me today is a demand for more investment, but we are not getting that from the Labour Government.