The party also pledged to cut waiting times for ambulances and elective care, and meet the 4-hour A&E target, fund more places in social care and substantially reduce the number of health boards.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: ‘A Scottish Labour Government will put our NHS first and give mental health the parity of esteem it deserves.

‘That means specialist emergency mental health care for people in crisis, community support in GP surgeries, better help for children and young people, and the right pathways for neurodivergent people so they are not left stuck on the wrong waiting lists.'

The manifesto commits to spending at least £25bn by 2030–31.

David Phillips, head of devolved and local government finance at the IFS, said: ‘Current Spending Review plans imply a 2.4% average real growth rate for the first two years of that period, between 2026–27 and 2028–29, so if Scottish Labour stuck to those existing plans, health spending growth would barely increase at all in real terms from 2028–29 to 2030–31. If it instead decided to maintain the growth rate over those last two years, health and social care spending would need to reach £26bn by 2030–31.

‘The challenge of improving NHS performance should not be underestimated – and given these relatively tight spending plans, delivering large improvements to services is likely to prove difficult, even with improvements to NHS productivity.'