Humza Yousaf to pledge £300m to cut NHS wait times at SNP conference

Humza Yousaf is to pledge an extra £300m to help cut NHS waiting lists by 100,000 patients by 2026.

The first minister will make the announcement during his keynote speech to the SNP conference in Aberdeen.

It comes after delegates agreed a new independence strategy based on winning the majority of Scotland's 57 seats at the next general election.

Mr Yousaf will vow to put the economy at the centre of the party's constitutional campaign.

Mr Yousaf will tell the conference that the Scottish government will invest an extra £100m in each of the next three years to cut waiting lists by an estimated 100,000 patients by 2026, when the next Holyrood election is scheduled to take place.

"This additional funding will enable us to maximise capacity, build greater resilience in the system and deliver year-on-year reductions in the number of patients who have waited too long for treatment," he is expected to say.

The SNP leader will also outline plans to build a "sustained majority" for independence.

However, support for Yes has remained largely unchanged at about 49% in recent polls, when undecided voters are excluded.

Mr Yousaf is expected to urge the party to move on from talking about the mechanics of independence to discussing the motivations for it, to help build a "sustained majority" for Yes.

The top line of the party's manifesto will be "vote SNP for Scotland to become an independent country", conference has been told.

The first minister is expected to say: "And that's because independence is about building a better Scotland.

"It's about raising living standards. It's about protecting our NHS. Above all, it's about a stronger economy. An economy that works for everyone who lives here."

The SNP's new independence strategy, agreed by delegates on Sunday, has ditched Nicola Sturgeon's plan for a de facto referendum.

However, arriving at the conference on Monday, she gave her "full unequivocal support" to the new plan.

The former first minister said she had been watching the conference "from afar" and denied taking attention away from her successor.

"I don't think there is any doubt from what I've seen about who is in charge of this conference and it's Humza Yousaf," she said.

Mr Yousaf gave an emotional speech to the conference on Sunday amid concerns for family members trapped in Gaza.

And on Monday the first minister cut short a walkabout of conference stands to take a call from his mother-in-law.

He has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and for humanitarian aid to be allowed into the region.

Mr Yousaf's wife, Nadia El-Nakla urged world leaders to "give the children of Gaza a chance of life" as she spoke of her "complete despair" in a speech to party delegates.

She expressed fears the city where her family has a home was being "obliterated" by the Israeli military.