Murdo Fraser MSP is calling on the new First Minister John Swinney to focus on dualling the Perth to Inverness road instead of “wasting time” talking about independence.
The Scottish Conservative politician was commenting following the Scottish Parliament agreeing to install Mr Swinney in the “poisoned chalice” post, after his predecessor Humza Yousaf resigned.
Swinney was formally given the role of First Minister this week at a swearing-in ceremony at the Court of Session, but Mr Fraser would like to see him concentrate on sorting out Scotland’s many issues, including the dualling of the A9.
Commenting, Mr Fraser said: “I wish Mr Swinney all the best in his new role, which lately has become a real poisoned chalice. He has said he hopes to work with Unionist parties in Scotland in order to make the country better but he has also made it clear that his main aim will still be to seek independence, which is a very backward outlook. We have had successive First Ministers who have failed to come out publicly and say they will definitely dual the notorious A9 in full.
“A large part of the road is in his backyard so he has no excuse for not dualling the road in full. The A9 Perth to Inverness road has a horrendous record for the number of fatalities and accidents, and it claimed the life of a woman following yet another fatality on May 6 at Slochd.”
Mr Fraser continued: “Local residents and road safety campaigners are tired of hearing about the need for independence when the SNP should be concentrating on issues that really matter, such as the dualling of the A9. The SNP Government initially set out to have the dualling of the A9 done by 2025 but they have now set a revised date of 2035 for completion of the project.
“Many of us feel the SNP Government have been too influenced in many of their policies by the Greens, who are very much against road infrastructure projects like the A9, so it will be interesting to see if Mr Swinney will stand up to them and make some progress with the dualling scheme. He needs to stop wasting time talking about independence when there clearly is very little appetite for this in Scotland now.”
