I'm joined now by the cabinet secretary for Health, Neil gray. Neil, what do you make of the Prime Minister's apology?

It is an absolutely extraordinary dereliction of duty from the Prime Minister to abandon the D-Day veterans. My grandfather was a Royal engineer, served at D-Day, helped to deliver the Mulbury Harbors that meant that D-Day was a success. The Prime Minister, in choosing to leave that commemoration early has ill-served his memory and the memory of so many others who lost their lives and who did come home, some of whom did come home, but have now been served by a Prime Minister to put a TV interview before their memory. I think it's utterly appalling and disgusting. It was a lack of judgment from a Prime Minister that has shown far too many lapses in judgment.

Do you think some of those veterans would have been offended yesterday?

Absolutely. I think the offense that will be caused to the veterans community will be great. As I say, my grandfather served as a Royal Engineer. He helped to deliver the Mulbury Harbors. He helped to make Dede a success alongside thousands of other young men, far too many of whom did not come home. For the Prime Minister to think that a TV interview was more important than completing those commemorations obligations is an appalling lack of judgment.

I wanted to ask you as well about what you're saying about Westminster parties today, which is that you think both Labor and the Conservatives will ultimately be cutting spending on public services?

It's not just us saying that, of course, it's the Institute for Fiscal Studies that are saying that there is a conspiracy of silence on continued austerity that's coming, regardless of whether it is Labor or the Conservatives that enter 10 Downing Street next month. It is going to be at least £18 billion of public service cuts piled onto a decade and a half of austerity that has left our public services across the UK in a desperate state. We have taken a decision to follow a different path in that we have invested through progressive taxation in the likes of our health service and our local government, education and other public services to ensure that they are as protected as possible from conservative austerity. But the difficulty and the challenge coming before us, whether it is continued labor or Tauri austerity, is great. That's why it's so important that we have SMPE MPs at Westminster, fighting Scotland's corner, putting Scotland's interest first, breaking that consensus that there is between Labor and Conservatives on austerity, on Brexit, on the lack of action or cost of a living crisis. Only SMPE MPs will put Scotland's interests first.

But to state the obvious, that means you would be happy with higher taxes in in order to prevent the spending cuts you think are coming?

We have instituted a situation where there is a more progressive taxation system in Scotland that has raised £1.5 billion for us to invest to protect our public services from Tauri austerity. It still means that the majority of people in Scotland pay less tax in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. The average Bande Council tax in Scotland is around £600, £600 less than in England, and we have frozen the council tax. So we have taken a progressive, measured approach to taxation in Scotland, whilst raising more revenue for public services, also making sure we're protecting people as best we can during a cost-of-living crisis. What we're seeing from Labor and the Conservatives is misleading the public or attempting to mislead the public when it comes to the need in their plans for further austerity. That's why they've got big questions to answer around how they would support the NHS, how they would support local government services. I think they need to come forward with a plan that sees investment, not further cuts.

Neil gray, thanks for joining us.