EDINBURGH, April 15 — Scotland’s leading pro-independence party today announced an eye-catching bid for votes at upcoming elections by promising a massive increase in health spending to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who leads the Scottish National Party (SNP), vowed to boost frontline spending on the National Health Service by “at least 20 per cent” if re-elected.
Voters go to the polls to elect new members of the devolved Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on May 6, with the SNP pushing hard for another vote on independence.
Sturgeon’s focus on healthcare comes against a backdrop of tensions between Edinburgh and the UK government in London over another referendum, after a breakaway was rejected in 2014.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who would have to transfer powers to Edinburgh to hold the vote, has repeatedly ruled out doing so.
But the SNP — buoyed by largely positive polling to Sturgeon’s stewardship of the coronavirus response — is hoping electoral success will make it harder for its demands to be resisted.
Launching the party’s manifesto, Sturgeon said the pandemic had “turned life as we know it upside down”, and the time was right to “build a better nation”.
Investment in the state-run NHS is already at record levels, but the pandemic has placed exceptional pressures on the service, Sturgeon said.
“Over the next Parliament, we will increase frontline NHS spending by at least 20 per cent,” she said.
“This will deliver an additional £2.5 billion for frontline health services – and is almost double what an inflation-only increase would amount to.”
The pledge stands in stark contrast to the UK government, which sets health policy in England and has come under fire for only proposing a 1.0 per cent pay increase to NHS workers.
Douglas Ross, who leads the opposition Scottish Conservative party, this week warned the SNP would shelve any promises to focus instead on a second independence referendum.
An Ipsos MORI poll conducted in late March and early April suggested the SNP is on course to win 70 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament.
The pro-independence Scottish Greens would take 11 seats.
Some 55 per cent of Scots voted against independence in 2014 but the SNP argues the UK’s Brexit departure from the European Union — which most Scots opposed — has dramatically changed the political calculus.
The SNP has set out plans to hold a referendum by the end of 2023. — AFP
