Meeting of the Parliament 13 January 2026
The budget does not meet the aspirations of the people of Scotland, and it does not recognise their need for real change. It is the 19th John Swinney budget, so it is more of the same. Everyone in Scotland knows what that means: hundreds of thousands of people in pain on NHS waiting lists, a justice system that is past breaking point, an education system that is going backwards day by day, and more than 10,000 kids waking up each day in temporary accommodation with no home to call their own.
Scottish Labour has delivered an additional £10.3 billion for Scotland’s budget, and it is only this knackered SNP Government that could turn a £10.3 billion uplift into a £1.6 billion problem.
The positive measures in the budget see the SNP desperately trying to fix a few—I repeat, a few—of its own mistakes. It wants to pretend that it is turning the corner on its own abysmal record; in reality, it has decimated Scotland’s finances and brought our services to their knees.
When I have asked SNP ministers what their plan is for desperately needed change in our hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, and for our businesses and families across Scotland, it has been apparent that they do not even understand the question, let alone have the answers.
Their incompetence has taken Scotland’s NHS to the brink. There are people suffering in pain and a booming waiting list for direct flights to Lithuania for hip and knee replacements. Nearly £0.5 billion that could be spent each year on Scotland’s schools, upgrading our roads or building more houses is instead wasted on delayed discharge, which the SNP promised to eradicate 11 years ago. On top of that, £1 billion was lost to Scotland’s budget due to what the Independent Fiscal Commission calls an “economic performance gap”, which is a direct result of the SNP’s abject failure to grow Scotland’s economy.
That is the true record of the SNP Government, so why on earth would a 19th John Swinney budget change Scotland’s direction? Is it not the case that the real opportunity for change is just weeks away, when a new Government will be able to deliver real change? Is it not the case that the only way that we can finally kick out this knackered SNP Government—[Interruption.]