Edinburgh's tram project blamed for Scottish Government's slow progress on A9 dualling

John Swinney was being quizzed at First Minister's Questions on the dualling of the A9 - a scheme which has seen only 11 miles completed in the past decade, with 77 miles still to go - when he brought the trams into the discussion.

The SNP originally wanted to scrap the Edinburgh tram project | PA

When the SNP first came to power at Holyrood as a minority government in 2007, it wanted to scrap the tram project. But opposition parties united to defeat the move and Mr Swinney - then Finance Secretary - agreed to provide the £500 million already earmarked but "not a penny more".

On Thursday, he was quizzed by Tory MSPs on a report by Holyrood's petitions committee about the £3 billion project, which voiced concern about whether cash would be made available to meet the latest 2035 deadline.

Mr Swinney said: "I came into government in 2007 committed to A9 dualling. The Parliament took a decision that stopped me from spending £500 million on A9 dualling: the Conservatives, the Labour Party, the Liberals and the Greens forced me, as a minister in a minority Government, to spend £500 million on the Edinburgh tram project when the Government had made a commitment to spend it on A9 dualling."

After interruptions, he continued: "Colleagues are muttering, '17 years ago'. If we had been able to proceed with projects at that time, we would have had £500 million at our disposal to dual the A9, which would have helped."

The A9 has been called the most dangerous road in Scotland, with 335 people killed on the Perth-to-Inverness stretch of the road between 1979 and July 2023. The dualling project was originally due to be completed by 2025, but in 2023 a new 2035 deadline was set.