Gaslighting is a very hard habit to break for SNP - Sue Webber

At a time when resources are tight, we can certainly rely on the SNP for an inexhaustible supply of bitterness and rancour beneath which they can bury their own record, but while Ms Robison remains on the ceiling it’s worth taking a look at who has betrayed who as far as defending public services is concerned.

For a dispassionate analysis, look no further than the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the respected think tank’s study of health spending last month, which pointed out that in 1999–2000, Scotland spent 22 per cent more per person on health than England. As the SNP took over the Scottish Government seven years later and has been running NHS Scotland for 17 years, any change to the position is almost entirely their responsibility, so what has happened?

Far from keeping up the ratio in a country with very serious health issues, spending has been cut back to the extent that the difference is now just three per cent, which will be more than swallowed up by logistics in covering a challenging geography. Flying patients from the islands for routine appointments in Glasgow and Aberdeen costs money, after all.

Perhaps recognising how much they have neglected Scotland’s NHS, First Minister Humza Yousaf gave a solemn pledge at the SNP’s October conference that they would invest an additional £300 million over three years to cut waiting lists by an estimated 100,000 patients by 2026. “This additional funding will enable us to maximise capacity, build greater resilience in the system and deliver year-on-year reductions in the number of patients who have waited too long for treatment,” he said.

So what did his Finance Secretary do? Again, the IFS can provide some answers and it revealed that Ms Robison’s budget for 2024-25 actually represents a 0.7 per cent real-terms cut in the NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care portfolio, despite the SNP claiming it had risen 1.3 per cent. It’s not just a question of who is betraying who, but who is deceiving who?

Ms Robson’s statement on Wednesday was a masterclass of deliberate confusion, moaning about capital budgets and gobbledygook about consequentials in the hope that Scottish voters wouldn’t notice the Chancellor just handed her another £295m.

We gave up expecting any hint of gratitude from the SNP many, many years ago, but the truth is that thanks to the Chancellor, Humza Yousaf now has a chance to honour that promise of health investment and still have enough left to restore the affordable housing budget Ms Robison cut by £200m.

That was the cash raid which led to the director of homelessness charity Shelter accusing the SNP leadership of “gaslighting” Scotland by claiming to be tackling poverty while condemning thousands of families to live without a proper place to call home.

And after a UK budget which put hundreds of pounds into the pockets of Scottish workers through another National Insurance cut to boost wages by up to £900 a year ─ while the SNP hammers modest earners with higher income tax ─ it seems gaslighting is a very hard habit to break.

Sue Webber is a Scottish Conservative Lothian MSP