Putting our NHS on the road to recovery - Ian Murray

That’s why the SNP is in such a muddle with their election message, changing it week by week as it seeks relevance. But ultimately, in this contest, the SNP has nothing to offer the people of Scotland that would deliver change. In fact, their 17 years in power in Scotland demonstrates they can only delivered managed decline.

For example, the nationalists’ website boasts that the party has “consistently called for greater tax transparency and stronger action from the Tory government on avoidance and evasion”. A laudable aim, but not something that any SNP MP elected at the General Election can deliver.

In contrast, Labour MPs can deliver precisely this kind of change – and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week set out how. It starts by strengthening the UK Government’s proposed replacement of non-dom rules, closing loopholes and scrapping a proposed 50 per cent discount on the tax non-doms would have to pay in the first year. This will bring in £1 billion in one year, rising to £2.6bn over the course of the next parliament.

On top of that, Labour will give the much-depleted HMRC more resources to tackle tax avoidance and evasion, spending £555 million on increasing the number of tax officers. Given the gap between the amount of tax owed and what the government actually collects is as high as £36bn, there is huge scope to claw back what is due to the British public.

Tackling tax evasion and avoidance will raise £0.7bn in 2025/26, growing to £5.1bn a year within five years. This approach could transform public services in every part of the UK, including in Scotland while protecting every single penny of taxpayers money.

So when the SNP talks about “calling” for change, only Labour can actually deliver change. And that is why people’s votes really matter in this election.

Scrapping the non-dom tax rules will generate millions of pounds for Scotland, which Scottish Labour believes should be invested in our NHS to create more health appointments to reduce record waiting times.For now, it will be for the SNP government to decide how the money is spent – but it’s clear that our NHS needs urgent reform after years of nationalist mismanagement. New figures published for the week ending March 31 revealed there were 26,556 unplanned attendances at emergency departments in Scotland. Only 62.7 per cent were seen and resulted in a subsequent admission, transfer or discharge within four hours, which is the national benchmark. And nearly 1,500 patients had to wait more than 12 hours. Long waits like this cost lives.

Health Secretary Neil Gray inherited an NHS in “turmoil” thanks to the failings of his predecessors, including Michael Matheson and Humza Yousaf, but he cannot waste any time in tackling this emergency. We need urgent action to ease the pressure on A&E. Sadly, neither the SNP nor the Tories can be trusted to protect our NHS.

This year, however, there is an opportunity to put the health service – and other public services – on the road to recovery with a Labour government.

Ian Murray MP is Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland