The NHS is YOUT messs

Swinney hits back after failed bid at grilling from lameduck Conservative

- CHRIS MCCALL

JOHN Swinney laid into Douglas Ross yesterday as the outgoing Tory leader attempted to pass the buck for Scotland's struggling NHS.

The First Minister slammed the Scottish Conservatives for trashing the UK economy with a "catastrophic" mini-budget - which Ross supported.

Swinney faced questions at Holyrood yesterday over the long waiting times many Scots are enduring in hospitals around the country.

Lameduck leader Ross, who has announced he is quitting as Scottish Tory boss in a bid to return to Westminster as an MP, tried to quiz Swinney at First Minister's Questions on the state of Scotland's NHS.

But Swinney slammed the embattled Tory MSP, saying it was the Tories' trashing of the economy under former PM Liz Truss that had hammered all public services.

Swinney said: "Mr Ross would be in a stronger position to argue for this if he hadn't argued for me to follow the budget of Liz Truss.

"That was what Douglas Ross wanted me to do. He wanted me to follow the tax-cutting agenda. If I had done that, it would have been catastrophic for the country and the NHS."

Swinney added: "I take responsibility for the actions of my government and public services on my behalf. That is my duty as First Minister and I do so on all occasions.