Nicola Sturgeon’s time as First Minister is a tale of broken promises and failure, the Scottish Conservatives have said.
The SNP leader becomes Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister tomorrow (Wednesday), overtaking the amount of time her predecessor Alex Salmond spent in Bute House.
But Douglas Ross insists her record is anything but a cause for celebration, with Scotland’s drugs death shame and the abandoned pledge to eliminate the educational attainment gap among the most glaring failures of her time in office.
The Scottish Conservative leader also pointed to rising violent crime rates, savage cuts to local councils, missed environmental targets and an NHS in crisis.
He also highlighted the current chaos faced by ferry users and train passengers as evidence of a failed First Minister constantly distracted by her independence obsession.
Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross said: “Nicola Sturgeon may be Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister but her record is appalling.
“Across virtually every policy area, hers is a story of failure and broken promises. But the two that stand out to me are drug deaths and the attainment gap.
“The number of Scots dying from drugs has soared inexorably while Nicola Sturgeon, in her own words, took her eye off the ball. Our death rate is now the highest in Europe, shaming the nation and her in particular.
“Nicola Sturgeon described closing the education attainment gap between our most and least deprived youngsters as the ‘defining mission’ of her government and yet that gap has widened to such a chasm that her Education Secretary shamefully ditched the pledge last week.
“Elsewhere, we see violent crime rising thanks to the SNP’s soft-touch approach to justice, a Scottish NHS in crisis due to dire workforce planning, local services hollowed out thanks to brutal SNP cuts to council funding and repeatedly missed environmental targets.
“Then there’s the scandalous incompetence over the ferries fiasco and the service cuts introduced by nationalised ScotRail which threaten to paralyse the nation.
“And all this mismanagement and failure has played out against a backdrop of a nation divided due to Nicola Sturgeon continually picking at its constitutional scab. Instead of healing Scotland after the 2014 referendum her constant push for another vote has split the public, distracted her government and left business in limbo.
“For these reasons, history will look back on her legacy as extremely damaging for Scotland.”