Last week was yet another extraordinary one in Scottish politics.
Millions of Scots will have been shocked to see the home of a former First Minister raided by the police.
It’s hard to imagine that it has only been two weeks since Nicola Sturgeon formally resigned in Parliament, but it is clear that the wheels have now truly fallen of the SNP wagon.
From resignations to raids and infighting, Humza Yousaf ’s start to the job has not been easy.
And it has not been easy, either, to watch our politics descend into little more than the SNP fighting amongst itself about itself.
It is an abdication of responsibility to the real issues facing Scots.
Amidst the chaos facing their party, the twin crises of the cost of living and the chaos in our NHS have been swept aside.
People across the country are struggling and they cannot rely on a divided and distracted SNP to address the real challenges we face.
While the big story last week was yet another SNP scandal, the real scandal I want to focus on is the crisis in our NHS.
This week we learned that after two years of Humza Yousaf at the helm as Health Secretary, cancer wait times have hit their worst ever rate in Scotland.
Not a single health board has met the government’s own 62-day treatment standard. Indeed, this standard hasn’t been met nationally since 2012.
And has been missed for every single recorded form of cancer.
This is catastrophic.
Cancer remains Scotland’s biggest killer.
Every single Scot has been touched in some way by cancer. We all know loved ones who have been lost to this terrible disease.
That so little progress has been made is truly shocking.
It's clear that 16 years of SNP failure has left our NHS on life support, with lives at risk as a result.
We know that SNP incompetence has consequences.
In this case, that incompetence cost lives.
Scotland deserves better than this.
Scotland needs a party that can lead with integrity, clean politics, and experience.
If the last two weeks have shown us anything, it is that we need honesty and transparency back in our politics.
We need leaders and representatives that don’t just make the rules, but actually follow them too.
Whether that’s Covid guidelines or party finances, it's clear that the SNP cannot be trusted.
They have become tired and complacent and too focused on sorting the mess out in their own party.
We need leaders who focus on the real challenges facing Scots.
We need a party focused on the future of Scotland.
That’s why we have a plan to renew and reform our NHS, to create thousands of jobs through a publicly owned energy company and a meaningful windfall tax on oil and gas giants so we can put money back into people’s pockets.
Scotland needs change - Labour is ready to be that change.
We will continue to relentlessly focus on earning your trust, earning your support and delivering the change Scotland needs.
Margaret Ferrier must stand aside
A couple of weeks ago the Standards Committee recommended that SNP MP Margaret Ferrier be suspended from the House of Commons for 30 days following her failure to abide by self-isolation rules at the height of the Covid pandemic.
It shouldn’t have had to come to this.
After she was caught breaking the rules by travelling from London to Scotland after testing positive for Covid, Margaret Ferrier should have done the decent thing and resigned.
She did not. So, it is now up to local people.
I was out in Rutherglen last week and the anger of local residents is palpable. While they were making huge sacrifices, their MP was risking people’s lives.
If Margaret Ferrier will not do the right thing and resign, then I have no doubt the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West will join together to sign the recall petition to remove her from office.
Scottish Labour will fully back local people in their campaign to unseat an MP that has been more interested in keeping her job than doing her job.
We are facing the twin crises of spiralling cost of living and an overburdened NHS.
People are struggling to make ends meet and neither the SNP nor the Tories have a plan to address these challenges.
These are the issues that really matter.
An MP that is on the side of local people, working to bring jobs and opportunities to the area and fighting for local public services is what the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West deserve.
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