JOHN Swinney tore into Anas Sarwar on NHS investment as he accused the SNP of creating an "NHS crisis all year round".
Sarwar challenged the First Minister on hospital waiting times and delayed discharge at FMQs, as he highlighted how the Scottish Government had previously pledged to"clear all waits" over two years by September 2022.
But Swinney took the Scottish Labour leader to task stressing the Government had invested more in the NHS than had been handed to it by Westminster via the Barnett Formula, citing a £19.5 billion "record investment in the NHS".
He told Sarwar: "We have to recognise that the Government can only allocate the resources that it has at its disposal and we are allocating a record amount of funding.
"As Mr Sarwar knows, in the climate of austerity that we have wrestled with for the last 14 years under the Conservative government, this places significant challenges on the resources we have put in place, but we have exceeded the amount of money that was allocated through the Barnett Formula to the health service.
"We’ve exceed that because of the commitment of this Government. So if Mr Sarwar thinks it will help by following his approach on taxation, which would reduce public expenditure in Scotland by £1.5bn, that will not the health service one little bit if we were to follow Mr Sarwar."
Swinney then hit back at Sarwar further repeating the claim from UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting (below) earlier this year that "all roads lead back to Westminster" when it comes to NHS funding.
"We wait to find out what the [UK] Budget will tell us when Parliament comes back after October recess. Let’s see if the Labour Party breaks with austerity, because what Mr Sarwar has put to me is a demand for more investment and we are not getting that from the Labour Government."
Swinney also ripped into Keir Starmer's first 100 days in office.
The First Minister was fielding a question from Labour MSP Paul O’Kane about fair work and worker’s rights in Scotland.
Highlighting that O'Kane had mentioned his party's first 100 days as the UK Government, Swinney said: "In the 100 days we've had the cut to Winter Fuel Payments for pensioners which nobody expected to come from a Labour government that was prepared to protect the rich and punish the poor. What on earth has the Labour Party been up to in its first 100 days in office?"
Meanwhile, Swinney accused Russell Findlay of talking "complete nonsense" after the Scottish Tory leader suggested the SNP had "stacked the entire justice system against crime victims".
The Scottish Government was due to announce whether some long-term inmates will be released early in a bid to ease overcrowding in Scotland’s jails later on Thursday.
Figures released on Wednesday revealed the prison population across the country was 8305 – just over 100 off the all time high of 8420 recorded back in 2012.
The target capacity for Scotland’s jails in 8007.
Swinney said the claim from Findlay was "patently untrue".
"Over the last decade, the average length of prison sentences has increased by 32%," said Swinney.
"That statistic alone demonstrates Mr Findlay is putting complete nonsense to me at First Minister's Questions.
"98% of all those convicted of rape and attempted rape between 2019 and 2022 received a custodial sentence. That is another fact that refutes what Russell Findlay has put to me."
