Russell Findlay has accused Holyrood’s Presiding Officer of double standards after John Swinney was allowed to brand the Scottish Conservatives a “disgusting organisation” during a fiery First Minister’s Questions.
The Conservative MSP said he was struggling to “decipher” the rules at the Scottish Parliament, noting that he had been reprimanded the previous week by Alison Johnstone for describing the Scottish Greens as “fanatics”.
The MSP code of conduct states that members must treat one another “with courtesy and respect”.
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The exchange followed questioning by Mr Findlay’s predecessor, Douglas Ross, who challenged the First Minister on whether he had accepted a salary increase.
In April, it was confirmed that ministerial pay would rise by more than £19,000 following the partial ending of a 16-year voluntary freeze.
Mr Swinney had said at the time that he would decline the increase, maintaining his salary at £135,605 instead of seeing it rise to nearly £155,000.
However, Mr Ross told MSPs on Thursday that the First Minister’s pay had increased regardless.
Mr Swinney responded: “I will go and check it, and I will make it clear this afternoon. I am very happy to do that.
“I have got no worries about sharing that information because what I have said to the public and to Parliament is that I will not take an increase in my MSP salary, and I will not take an increase in my ministerial pay.”
Mr Ross heckled Mr Swinney during the exchange, prompting a warning from Ms Johnstone, who said the ex-Tory leader would be expelled if he continued to interrupt.
The First Minister then launched a scathing attack on the Tories, saying: “I think it says something about the depths that the Conservative Party has now reached that they are not prepared to take anything in good faith across this parliamentary chamber.
“The Conservative Party never ceases to amaze me with how low they will stoop.
“They are a disgusting organisation.”
Asked for his response following FMQs, Mr Findlay said: “I am beginning to worry about the strange rules I have yet to decipher inside the Parliament, where last week I called the Green Party fanatics and this was deemed to be unacceptable – and today he was given free rein to call our party disgusting. I think it is unacceptable.”
The session had been dominated by the First Minister’s Programme for Government and its headline pledge to create 100,000 additional GP appointments.
Mr Findlay criticised the commitment, describing it as a “pathetic con”. He cited Public Health Scotland data, which he said showed there were 500,000 fewer GP appointments in the last year compared with the year before Mr Swinney became First Minister.
He added that BMA Scotland had warned the 100,000 figure was equivalent to just one extra day of appointments, amounting to an increase of less than 1%.
“The Royal College of General Practitioners of Scotland say they simply do not have the workforce capacity to deliver the 100,000 extra appointments,” he told MSPs.
“The way to increase the appointments is to increase the number of GPs.
“The SNP promised 800 more but that has not happened. They constantly make big pledges about the NHS but always fail patients. The SNP never keep their word.”
He said the additional 100,000 appointments would focus on high-risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and smoking.
He also confirmed an expansion of the Pharmacy First scheme, which allows people to access medical help from pharmacists, and a broader use of other frontline health professionals, such as physiotherapists.
“The combination of these factors will make an impact on the access to GP services in Scotland,” he said.
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The First Minister also claimed a previous pledge to deliver 64,000 extra surgeries and appointments by March 2025 had already been exceeded, with 105,500 delivered.
“There will be more delivery by this Government in the course of the next 12 months,” he said.
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar told MSPs that “shocking new figures” showed ambulances were being left to queue outside hospitals for hours, turning car parks into makeshift accident and emergency wards.
“At Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, one ambulance was stuck outside for over 15 hours. In Ayr, another waited nearly 15 hours. In Elgin, 12 hours,” he said.
“Car parks turned into A&E wards, corridor care a normality, 800,000 stuck on waiting lists, and record numbers of Scots forced to go private.
“The truth is the party who created Scotland’s NHS crisis will never be the ones to fix it.”
Mr Swinney said there were still “significant challenges remaining” in the NHS, but insisted performance was improving.
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