SNP failing to meet huge fiscal challenges - Ian Murray
On Monday the Auditor General for Scotland issued a stark warning: the Scottish Government faces an “unprecedented” financial black hole by the end of the decade.
The Auditor General is one of the most prominent positions in Scottish public life, tasked with scrutinising the national accounts and crucially, is independent and non-partisan.
His statement this week was a reiteration of his warning last year that the Scottish Government has no plan to address a near-£5bn chasm between spending commitments and funding options.
It comes despite Scotland continuing to benefit from the sharing of resources across the UK, with Scottish Government figures published earlier this month showing that public spending is £2720 higher per person in Scotland than in the rest of the UK, despite a £25.3bn gap between revenue and spending in Scotland.
It’s a reminder that Scotland benefits financially from its place in the UK and it further illustrates the value of a UK Labour government, which has provided almost £12bn in additional resources to the Scottish Government since July 2024.
Sadly, the SNP have wasted that money instead of using it to bring down NHS waiting lists, improve attainment in schools and support local councils.
Of course, there has been no shortage of uncosted gimmicks or policy announcements that have led nowhere.
In the words of the Auditor General this week: “The Scottish Government is good at setting out its vision, producing strategies, frameworks and plans. But it has struggled to deliver.”
This sums up perfectly what I have described here before: the SNP run a government by press release, making big, bold announcements and then doing precisely nothing to actually deliver them.
Remember the free laptops for every school pupil, promised in 2021 and ditched in 2024?
One area in which this pattern of behaviour has been most evident, and which will be familiar to families here in Edinburgh South and across the country, is the health service.
Under the SNP, we have had 130 major health strategies since 2007, equivalent to one every seven weeks. But on the ground, despite the hard work of NHS staff, waiting lists continue to climb.
Figures published this week by Public Health Scotland highlight that the number of ongoing outpatient waits increased by 2 per cent to 507,535 in July 2026. Contrast this with falling waiting lists south of the border where the NHS is run by the Labour government.
Challenges in our public services will only intensify if the SNP cannot get the public finances in better shape and address the looming black hole the Auditor General warned about this week.
What is clear is that we need a proper plan from the Scottish Government to deal with the huge fiscal challenges facing the country. Scottish taxpayers pay more than their counterparts south of the border, but wherever you look, whether it’s health, education, or housing, public services seem to be in decline.
As the Auditor General put it in his report: “We now need tangible action and at pace.” Chance would be a fine thing especially after an SNP election manifesto packed full of giveaways and gimmicks that nobody will ever see.