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Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond put the NHS centre stage in the independence referendum debate yesterday — with a new pledge to protect the service from privatisation.
The First Minister made what he called a Declaration of Opportunity on a visit to Arbroath Abbey, where Scottish sovereignty was affirmed in 1320 following the wars of independence.
The first of his “three key opportunities” from independence was “the opportunity to protect our publicly owned, publicly run NHS forever from Westminster privatisation and cuts.”
Other opportunities were to “create a fairer Scotland, ending the assault on the most vulnerable members of our society” and for young people to “choose to build their future here … because an independent Scotland has a strong economy, a just society and a good quality of life for all.”
But Scottish Labour health spokesman Neil Findlay hit back at the SNP’s “desperate scaremongering” over the NHS, pouring scorn on Mr Salmond’s claim that the NHS in Scotland was under threat of privatisation.
Mr Findlay said the NHS in Scotland has been “fully devolved since 1999” with all decisions on spending made solely by the Scottish government.
“Under the SNP that has meant failing to pass on £300 million of Barnett consequentials in a single year, cutting bed numbers and nursing staff and increasing spending on private healthcare by some 37 per cent.”
Mr Finday said the SNP’s “attempt to make the NHS an independence issue just doesn’t hold water and Scottish voters aren’t falling for it.”
The referendum row over the NHS in Scotland came as two weekend opinion polls suggested the gap between No and Yes votes has narrowed slightly.
An ICM poll in Scotland on Sunday found that 38 per cent of people said they support a Yes vote, up four percentage points from last month.
However support for a No vote also picked up by two points, increasing to 47 per cent.
Another poll by Panelbase, commissioned by the Yes campaign, found that 42 per cent support a Yes vote with 46 per cent for No and 12 per cent undecided.
