Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay today criticised John Swinney for squandering half a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money on the SNP’s ferries scandal.
At First Minister’s Questions, Findlay asked John Swinney how much the Ferguson Marine ferries would eventually cost taxpayers.
This week it emerged the Glen Rosa would be delayed to June 2026 and costs would rise again.
Reports this week put the combined cost of building the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa at £460 million and counting – £60m more than the figure Nicola Sturgeon refused to recognise three years ago.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “Scotland’s taxpayers are footing the SNP’s bill for the ferries scandal they created.
“John Swinney can’t even say what the final cost will be to taxpayers for the corrupt ferry contract that he personally signed off.
“He has never accepted blame. Nobody in the SNP ever has or ever does. Not a single one of them has held their hands up to islanders or taxpayers.
“Half a billion pounds has been wasted and a decade lost, but the SNP think nobody should be held responsible.
“The ferries saga symbolises so much that’s wrong under the SNP.
“John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon shamelessly exploited Ferguson Marine and its workers for party political purposes.
“During election campaigns, they loved posing for the cameras at the nationalised shipyard. They preferred PR grandstanding instead of providing a decent ferry service for islanders.
“John Swinney has sunk half a billion pounds that could have been spent raising school standards, fixing the roads or creating more GP appointments.
“How much better off would people be if that money had gone into our public services instead of down the drain?”
Notes
Nicola Sturgeon said she did not recognise figures suggesting the cost of the ferries could rise to £400 million. Sturgeon said: ‘I know that he [Douglas Ross] was quoting somebody else — costs of between £350 million and £400 million. I simply do not recognise those numbers.’ (Official report, 31 March 2022, link).