ELECTION 2021: 100-day recovery plan welcomed

Banffshire and Buchan Coast candidate for the SNP Karen Adam has welcomed her party's plan for recovery.

The SNP published the detail surrounding some of the actions it would take within 100 days to keep Scotland safe during the pandemic and help kick-start a sustainable recovery if it was re-elected into government.

She said: "We are living in unprecedented times and the problems we face require urgent and radical measures for our people now, and for the generation to come.

"The launch of 'First Steps' - a 100-day plan of serious and positive action to address what is needed from a committed and determined government, sets out key actions to tackle the pandemic, support the NHS, invest in jobs and young people, support families and tackle the climate crisis."

Nicola Sturgeon launched the plan on a visit to Aberdeenshire West on Thursday.

She said: “This 100-day plan demonstrates the SNP is the only party that is serious about government and serious about helping people in Scotland through these difficult times."

The plan includes a pay rise for NHS workers, new cancer centres opened, support for small businesses to go digital, new training courses to help young people into jobs and immediate action to tackle the climate crisis.

Ms Sturgeon added: "We’ll take urgent action to support children, families and young people - completing the roll-out of 1140 hours of free childcare, expanding free school meals, paying the first instalment of the expanded £1 billion Scottish Attainment Fund and introducing the legal changes to extend free bus travel to everyone under 22 years old."

Ms Adam added: “I very much look forward to being part of the team that will start work on longer term challenges, establishing a new council for economic transformation, taking the first steps toward establishing a national care service and beginning work on a minimum income guarantee.

"We have to seize the opportunities that are open to us so that we move forward better and bolder, for us now and for those who follow us in the future.

"With the full powers of an independent country we could do so much more and Scotland would no longer be subject to a Westminster government taking our country in the wrong direction.

"I am determined that I and party I represent for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, will get down to work immediately to tackle the major challenges we face as a country."

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