Scottish election 2021: Parties grilled over detail of Covid recovery

Senior politicians from Scotland's main parties have been grilled over the detail of their Covid recovery plans.

In a BBC Question Time election special, the SNP and Conservatives faced questions on NHS spending while the Lib Dems were pressed on costings.

The Greens  slotxo โปรโมชั่น heard concerns for oil and gas workers' job security and Labor was pressed on its long term commitments.

It comes ahead of the Holyrood election on 6 May.

The televised debate saw Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie, Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, SNP deputy leader Keith Brown and Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar take questions from a virtual audience.

It is the first time all five main parties have debated issues following the publication of their manifestos.

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When asked if the NHS in Scotland was ready to tackle the pandemic aftermath, Mr Brown said the SNP would allocate further funding to the health service if it was forthcoming from the UK government.

But host Fiona Bruce pointed out that a recent report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggested that the Scottish government's £ 2.5bn increase to NHS spending was less than the UK government promised to NHS England.

Mr Brown said the figures had been "disputed by experts" and reiterated the party's manifesto pledge to have 10% of the NHS budget go into mental health in five years.

Meanwhile, Mr Ross was asked why his party apparently "u-turned" on their position on a 4% pay rise for NHS staff which was announced by the Scottish government in March.

The Conservatives initially said they would make a decision on the matter following the outcome of an independent report before later agreeing with the figure.

Mr Ross said: "It was never a u-turn, I absolutely support the 4%. It will be after election that we understand outcome of the ballot on that."