Yesterday, the Parliament agreed to suspend the former Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care, Michael Matheson, for attempting to misuse £11,000 of public money. Rather than defending Scots and protecting the integrity of Parliament, John Swinney chose to put his party before the country. Had Michael Matheson been at Westminster, he would now be facing a recall petition and, potentially, a by-election, but yet again, those in the Scottish National Party hold Scotland to a lower standard and believe that it is one rule for them and another rule for everyone else.

While John Swinney spent all his time this week managing his party and defending sleaze, waiting lists in Scotland reached a record high. More than 840,000 Scots are now stuck on a national health service waiting list, and more than one in 10 have been waiting more than a year. Why is John Swinney putting the SNP, not Scotland, first?

I am the first to acknowledge that we face challenges in the national health service as a consequence—the issues have been well rehearsed in Parliament—of the aftermath of Covid and the implications that that has had in terms of the amount of time for which people are having to wait for treatment.

I am sorry for the amount of time for which people are having to wait. We are reducing the longest waits and making headway on that. With regard to the volume of activity in the national health service, the statistics this week indicate an increase in the level of activity in the NHS to begin to eat into those long waiting times, which I accept are far too long for too many people.

The Government is taking steps including investment of £30 million in the waiting times programme and the establishment of the national treatment centres, which are already making an impact and producing some of that welcome level of increased activity, combined with the focus in the national health service on tackling the longest waits. Those are the measures that the Government is taking forward to ensure that we tackle the legitimate issue that Mr Sarwar raises with me.

Waiting lists in Scotland are going up, not down. John Swinney has to get his head out of the sand, because every day that he spends putting the SNP before Scotland has consequences for our NHS, and for patients such as Natalie from Glasgow.

In 2017, Natalie had emergency surgery for a brain tumour. In 2021, she began to feel symptoms, specifically pain around her eye. She has a tumour around her optical nerve that is causing her pain and pushing on her eye socket. In December last year, she was told that she would need surgery, and that part of her skull would need to be removed and not replaced. She has heard nothing since then. She has a brain tumour, and she has heard nothing for almost six months. She has been told that she could lose her sight if it is not treated.

This morning, Natalie told me:

“That just makes the anxiety and the concerns worse. I’m worried about the pain being an indication that the tumour is getting worse, but I have no way of knowing. I’m in the dark and feel completely alone during all of this.”

Does the First Minister understand that patients like Natalie should be his priority, rather than defence of a failed health secretary who attempted to misuse public money?

First, I say to Natalie that I understand entirely the anxiety that she faces, and I am sorry that she has not heard anything since December. If Mr Sarwar, in the aftermath of today’s exchanges, would like to advise me of the details, I will take the issue up, as he will understand I would do.

I say also that patients like Natalie are my focus. I am spending huge amounts of my time as First Minister focusing on the real and legitimate concerns of people in Scotland about our public services. I said to Parliament last week that my priorities would address the challenges in our public services, and that that would be one of the four major themes, along with eradicating child poverty, the transition to net zero and the stimulation of economic growth.

Those reforms and developments, and progression in our public services will be, and are, at the heart of my priorities. That is what the Cabinet was talking about in our meeting this week, and we will continue to do that. I assure Mr Sarwar, and l assure Natalie, that the concerns of people in Scotland about getting access to healthcare treatment when they need it, at the earliest possible opportunity, will be fundamental to the priorities that I take forward on behalf of the people of Scotland.

We hear the same answer week after week, month after month and year after year, but things keep getting worse for people right across the country. I have heard what the First Minister has said, but it does not change the fact that he has spent the past week fighting for Michael Matheson when he should have been fighting for patients such as Natalie and hundreds of thousands of Scots like her.

After 17 years of this SNP Government, one in six Scots is stuck on an NHS waiting list. Our NHS desperately needs change. In 1948, Labour created our NHS; in 1997, we rescued our NHS; and on 5 July, the 76th birthday of our NHS, we will begin the process of rescuing it again.

However, that also needs change in Scotland, because the priorities of the SNP Government are all wrong. [ Interruption .]

Let us hear Mr Sarwar.

Why is John Swinney more interested in defending Michael Matheson than in defending our NHS? Why is John Swinney putting his party before the country? Why is John Swinney failing NHS staff and patients every single day?

I reiterate that my primary concern is to make sure that people such as Natalie receive the treatment that they want at the earliest possible opportunity, to address their anxiety and acute health requirements. If Mr Sarwar gives me the details, I will attend to that after First Minister’s questions.

However, some of the rest of what Mr Sarwar went on to say is just a little bit hollow. On Wednesday morning, the Labour shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said:

“The NHS is in crisis in every part of the United Kingdom because decisions that are taken in Westminster don’t just affect England, but Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.”

Earlier in the month, he said that

“all roads do lead back to Westminster”

because of the austerity that we have suffered for 14 years.

In relation to that austerity programme, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has indicated that the Labour Party, if it is elected to office, will not increase income tax, national insurance, corporation tax or VAT, and that it has accepted very strict borrowing limits within very strict fiscal and tax rules, and squeezed spending budgets. That amounts to austerity on stilts from any incoming Labour Government.

If that was not bad enough, Wes Streeting said yesterday that he will

“hold the door wide open”

for the private sector in the national health service. He went on to say:

“We will go further than New Labour ever did. I want the NHS to form partnerships with the private sector that goes beyond just hospitals.”

Mr Sarwar should not give me that stuff about the anniversary of the national health service, because Labour is preparing to sell us out on austerity and the national health service, and cannot be trusted to deliver for the people of Scotland.