With the Scottish Parliament in recess until September, the First Minister and SNP leader Humza Yousaf MSP is campaigning around the country, including rural and coastal communities, as part of a “summer of independence”.
Dame Jackie Baillie attacked the First Minister’s campaigning zeal during a “cost-of-living crisis and chaos in our public sector”, pointing to NHS waiting lists, drug deaths and rising mortgage costs.
She said: “It is astonishing that in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and chaos in our public sector, the out-of-touch First Minister has elected to spend his time gallivanting around Scotland’s top tourist spots.
“The SNP could not be making it any clearer that no matter how desperately the country needs support, their first priority will always be independence.
“Scotland needs a First Minister who is capable of actually leading, not someone who has lost all control, both of the country and his own MSP group."
Mr O’Hara, Argyll's SNP MP who accompanied Mr Yousaf during his visit to Oban on July 24, said: “Jackie Baillie’s comments betray an arrogance and a contempt for the people who live, work, and study in what may be areas of great natural beauty, but which are also areas with real economic and social problems."
His office added: "Ironically, the First Minister’s visit to Argyll & Bute came less than a month after The Oban Times launched their 'Invest in the West' campaign, and just days after a Labour MSP had publicly called on Mr Yousaf to come to Oban to see for himself the challenges facing the rural west coast."
In support of The Oban Times' Invest in the West campaign, Labour's Highlands and Islands MSP Rhoda Grant wrote: "It is vitally important for politicians who spend the majority of their time in the central belt to - at least occasionally - pop out to the rest of Scotland and witness the ramifications of their policies."
Mr O’Hara continued: “It is beyond absurd that one day the Labour Party are demanding the First Minister come to Oban, only to then accuse him of 'gallivanting' when he does. This is cynical political opportunism of the worst kind, and Jackie Baillie’s comments are unworthy of a serious politician.
“After the First Minister’s visit I was in Campbeltown, Tayinloan, Lochgilphead, Mull, Iona and Ulva. Everyone I spoke to was aware that the First Minister had been in Argyll & Bute, and they were very pleased that he had come here to see for himself the impact that Brexit and the cost-of-living crisis is having on our already economically fragile communities."
Dame Jackie Baillie said: “While one in seven Scots is on a waiting list, the First Minister is touring the country banging the drum for Scottish Independence.
“The country is struggling with the cost-of-living crisis and rural communities are some of the hardest hit particularly with the fragile ferry service the SNP has failed to fix.
“The First Minister’s one-track mind for independence shows contempt to the communities who desperately need real intervention from his government to survive and thrive.”
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