Ruth Davidson: UK must choose between tax cuts and funding NHS

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives has called on the UK Government to prioritise funding the NHS over future tax breaks.

Ruth Davidson made the remarks during a lecture at Glasgow University on Tuesday evening.

She argued that the health service needed "substantial extra funding across the whole of the UK'' to deal with rising costs and an ageing population.

Answering the question of where the cash should come from, she said ministers should not introduce any more tax cuts "beyond those already promised''.

Ms Davidson said: "The UK government has a choice to make.

"And, if that choice is between extra spending on the NHS or introducing further tax breaks beyond those already promised, I choose the NHS.''

She added: "Either way, we should have the honesty to recognise that this is a moment where we as a country have to choose one way or the other.

"My view is that people across the UK would not forgive us if we allowed this moment to pass.''

The Tory MSP, who is expecting her first child with fiancee Jen Wilson, said the issue of the NHS was "pretty personal for me''.

She told the audience: "At five years old, the NHS first saved my life, then saved my legs, after I was run over by a truck outside my house.

"They put me back together again a few years later when I managed to break my back.

"My sister is an NHS doctor. And, as you may have heard, I'll be requiring the services of my local maternity hospital in the months ahead.''

Upping the health budget would not only benefit front line medical services, Ms Davidson argued, adding that such a move "would help tackle the wider crisis of trust'' that centrist politicians are facing.

In a wide-ranging speech, she also set out how the Tories could attract the support of more young voters - saying that with this group they are "simply losing the argument''.

She said: "The answer is categorically not for Conservatives to don hoodies and caps and try to get down with the kids.

"The answer is to tackle the actual issues that the younger generation are facing. And top of the list here is housing.''

The Scottish Conservative leader said she had only managed to get on the property ladder last year, and with more and more professionals in their 30s now forced to rent rather than buy, she said: "Forgive me for stating the bleeding obvious - but the best way to sort this is to build more homes.''

To help with this she suggested a system that would allow landowners to benefit from the increase in land values that occurs when planning permission is granted, suggesting this could be used to "invest back into the community'' by providing better quality developments with more communal spaces.

While admitting there was a "lot to work through'' to address the UK's housing problems, she said: "Tackle that and we can genuinely say that we are sticking by a key part of our social contract - that the next generation will have more opportunities than the last.''

She also used the speech to urge her party to review its pledge to reduce net migration to the UK to under 100,000 a year.

Ms Davidson said: "I have said this before but I will repeat it tonight: I see neither the sense nor the need to stick to an immigration figure devised nearly a decade ago, which has never been met and does not fit the requirements of the country.

"Setting an immigration target reduced to the tens of thousands is one thing when unemployment is running over 8%. Refusing to review it when the country nears full employment and sectors are reporting skills shortages is quite another.''

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: "Ruth Davidson offers nothing to the people of Scotland other than division.

"The Tories have presided over nearly a decade of stagnating economic growth and declining living standards - while simultaneously eroding hard-won workers and trade union rights.

"Ruth Davidson's dogmatic support for a dangerous and damaging Brexit will only pile further economic misery on Scotland and the whole of the UK.''

SNP MSP Gillian Martin said: "Ruth Davidson ironically makes a very strong case for how the UK is simply not working for Scotland - whether it comes to their damaging approach to Brexit, immigration, or austerity, the UK Government are actively harming jobs, public services and living standards in Scotland.

"And while Ms Davidson is absolutely right when she says that the NHS has coped 'brilliantly' with the challenges of the last decade, her calls for more funding have no credibility given that just a few months ago she was demanding tax cuts for the rich that would have cost the health service in Scotland £550million."