9 hours ago
Tony Blair to help Scottish Labour beat SNP
Sir Tony Blair has been enlisted to help Scottish Labour oust the SNP from power in next year's Holyrood election.
The former prime minister's Institute for Global Change has been asked to help the party develop new health policies.
They have been earmarked for Scottish Labour's manifesto for next May's Holyrood election, with the SNP's record on running the NHS expected to be one of the key issues.
The Sunday Times reported that the institute is working for no fee on proposals for how to improve access to GPs and measures to prevent illness.
It is also expected to make proposals about how 'more effective use of technology solutions' will help drive down record waiting lists for operations.
Sir Tony's not-for-profit institute works in more than 40 countries and focusses on harnessing new technologies and artificial intelligence to reform how governments are run and public services delivered.
But the former prime minister, who won three general elections, remains a controversial figure within and outside the Labour Party.
A review by Audit Scotland has warned that 'difficult decisions' may be needed about whether some NHS services can continue, with major reform 'urgently needed' to cope with growing demand.
First Minister John Swinney unveiled his NHS recovery blueprint in January and admitted there were crises in parts of the health service.
But unions and professional bodies representing Scotland's NHS medics attacked the plan's lack of detail, and questioned where the funding and staff would come from.
SNP ministers have also faced heavy criticism for failing to develop an NHS app, which has been available to patients in England since 2019.
It is hoped that a trial of the Scottish app will be launched by the end of this year, but it will have limited functionality compared with its English equivalent.
A Tony Blair Institute spokesman said: 'We are always happy to talk to any and all political parties who are interested in our work, all of which is published and publicly available.
'The conversations we have had with Scottish Labour are specifically around how our health policy proposals could apply to healthcare in Scotland. We intend to publish this work regardless of the outcome of the election.'
Dame Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's health spokeswoman, said: 'Our NHS is stretched to breaking point and technology is a way to ease that pressure — but the SNP is squandering the opportunity.
'From GP practices using fax machines to doctors relying on pagers, the SNP is running an analogue health service in a digital age. GPs have been sounding the alarm about how a woeful lack of basic IT is holding them back — it's time we have a government that will listen.
'A Scottish Labour government will put Scotland on the cutting edge of medical innovation and modernise our NHS so it is fit for the future.'
At the end of March, there were 63,403 people waiting for outpatient treatment that had been continuing for more than a year, an increase of 34 per cent compared with 12 months previously. They included 5,262 cases waiting two years or more for treatment, a record high.
Angus Robertson, chair of the SNP's campaign committee, said: 'It speaks volumes that Scottish Labour are relying on the advice of the man to led us into a disastrous, illegal war in Iraq to tell them what is best for Scotland.
'Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar have no vision for Scotland's future and rather than listening to the people of Scotland, they can only look backwards at a discredited, unpopular figure like Tony Blair.
'Only the SNP is offering people a positive, ambitious vision for Scotland's future — improving our NHS, tackling the cost of living and ensuring Scotland reaches its full potential with the powers of independence.'
