Why I'm convinced SNP deliberately misled voters over new £2.1bn Monklands Hospital – Jackie Baillie
Former SNP MSP Alex Neil has has described the Monklands hospital scandal as ‘deception of the worst kind’
On April 19, 2026, the First Minister John Swinney stood beaming in the sunshine against the backdrop of the construction site for the new Monklands Hospital. Plans to replace the existing crumbling hospital had been in the works since 2017, with the final business case submitted in December last year.
Standing next to the SNP candidate for Airdrie and Shotts – his then Health Secretary Neil Gray – Swinney said he was “delighted” that work had started on the hospital, which he called “an important provision of healthcare facilities”, before adding: “We need to make sure more of this development happens with both votes SNP on May 7.”
That same week, the SNP published their manifesto, which boasted “work is already well underway on major capital projects including replacements for University Hospital Monklands”, before listing all the other projects an SNP government would deliver.
Spiralling costs
On April 26, 12 days before the election, the Sunday Mail reported that the final business case had still not been signed off by the Scottish Government and the project could be scaled back. An SNP spokesman declared this was “not true”.
The SNP won the election and Gray won his seat – but just 50 days later, his successor as Health Secretary, Angela Constance, announced that the project would be scrapped. The reason she gave was that costs were spiralling out of control, and were therefore unaffordable.
As regular readers of this column know, I am the first to advocate value for money when it comes to the Scottish government’s spending decisions. But I also believe political parties should make election promises they intend to keep.
Swinney and Gray received the final business case before Christmas – a business case that the NHS had already spent £42 million developing.
In January, Gray had the opportunity to discuss budget pressures with the Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. He told them: “We have had to pause the majority of the capital programme in health. We are restarting it now in priority areas such as Monklands.”
Power for power’s sake
By the time they posed for photos in April, Swinney and Gray had been in possession of the final business case for four-and-a-half months. On April 26, The Times reported that the cost of the new hospital could triple to £2 billion. Swinney and Gray had 12 days to change tack, but they didn’t.
The SNP seek power for power’s sake, and its election promises are already disintegrating before our eyes. The much-vaunted 12 replacement GP practices will not have spades in the ground until 2031. Lots of promises, no delivery. And when will we get an update on another of the SNP’s so-called priority projects, the Edinburgh Eye Pavilion?
Alex Neil, the former SNP MSP for Airdrie and Shotts and one of Gray’s predecessors as Health Secretary, has described the Monklands scandal as “deception of the worst kind” and called for Gray to resign from the Cabinet.
Not only has the SNP government let down patients in Lanarkshire by its financial incompetence, but it lied to them, and for this it must be held accountable.
Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health
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