Scottish election 2021: Sturgeon sets out plan for first 100 days
- Published
Nicola Sturgeon said supporting children and young people would be one of the SNP's priorities.
Nicola Sturgeon has announced her plan for the first 100 days of government, if the SNP regains power in Holyrood.
With a week until polls open in the Scottish parliamentary elections on 6 May, Ms Sturgeon said the outcome was on a "knife-edge".
The SNP's priority was to "steer Scotland through the Covid crisis and get the recovery underway", she said.
This election was the "most important in the history of the Scottish Parliament", she added.
Ms Sturgeon was in Aberdeenshire to launch the 100-day plan, setting out the initial steps an SNP government would take for NHS recovery, protecting jobs, and supporting children and young people.
Ahead of the launch, Nicola Sturgeon said: "This election is the most important in the history of the Scottish Parliament - and only the SNP are offering a programme for serious government to lead Scotland through the pandemic and into a sustainable recovery."
She added: "Our immediate priority should we be re-elected will be to steer Scotland through the Covid crisis and get the recovery underway.
"Polls are showing that the outcome of this election is on a knife-edge, and by giving both votes to the SNP next Thursday, people can elect a government which has the experience and the leadership to lead Scotland through this crucial period and into a sustainable future."
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The Scottish Conservatives campaign took them to Coldstream next to the Scotland-England border, where Douglas Ross appealed for voters to make the "anti-referendum, pro-UK majority in Scotland count".
He said an SNP majority focussed on another referendum would "crush our economic recovery" and "take us to the brink of ending the United Kingdom".
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: "A hard border won't create jobs, as the SNP falsely claim, but will instead put half a million Scottish jobs at risk, make foreigners out of friends and family, and end a 300-year-old union."
He added: "This election is about one thing and one thing only - whether Scotland gets on the road to recovery.
"The only way to stop a second independence referendum is to using your party list vote on the peach ballot paper for the Scottish Conservatives."
Anas Sarwar, the leader of the Scottish Labour party, was also appealing to voters to give him their list vote so he could focus on the national recovery.
He began a tour of the country with a peach-coloured campaign bus designed to look like the ballot paper for the regional list vote.
"For the next six days, I will be travelling the length and breadth of Scotland, taking Labour's message of hope and unity to every community and saying that we can choose to focus on what unites us not what divides us, " Mr Sarwar said.
"We simply can't come through the collective trauma of Covid and go back to the old arguments."
SCOTLAND'S ELECTION: THE BASICS
What's happening? On 6 May, people across Scotland will vote to elect 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). The party that wins the most seats will form the government. Find out more here.
What powers do they have? MSPs pass laws on aspects of life in Scotland such as health, education and transport - and have some powers over tax and welfare benefits.
Free travel for young people was the focus of the Scottish Greens campaign.
Bus travel will be provided for children and young adults up to the age of 21 from this year, and the party want to extend that to cover rail and ferry travel.
Co-leader Patrick Harvie said: "Free bus travel for young people is a transformational policy, not just for tackling household poverty and the climate emergency, but also for opening up opportunities for young people to travel and study.
"The Scottish Greens are determined to build on that, so that public transport reaches communities it currently does not, and we are committed to delivering the college places and apprenticeships young people will need that public transport to get to."
The Scottish Greens also plan to push for increased support for apprenticeships and funding for colleges to expand bursaries for 16 and 17-year-olds and re-introduce part-time courses to give college education parity with university.
Independence 'distraction'
Scottish Liberal democrats leader Willie Rennie was in Perthshire with his campaign to increase his party's seats in Holyrood.
He said he would use a larger group of Liberal Democrat MSPs to block any attempt by any new government to bring forward the Independence Referendum Bill.
Speaking as he visited a distillery in Perthshire, Willie Rennie said: "To recover from the worst health and economic crisis of the last 100 years, we cannot have the next Scottish Parliament distracted by independence.
"With our positive message of 'put recovery first' and with our campaign reaching out to disenchanted SNP supporters, Liberal Democrats are well placed to make gains and make the parliament focus on recovery, not independence."
POLICIES: Who should I vote for?
CANDIDATES: Who can I vote for in my area?
PODLITICAL: Updates from the campaign
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