Highlands and Islands MSP Donald Cameron has said that he is “not in the least surprised” by the Scottish Government’s announcement that it is removing the August 2020 deadline for councils to provide 1140 hours of free childcare.

The announcement comes less than a month after Audit Scotland warned that hitting the August deadline was already in jeopardy due to slow progress on the infrastructure required to fulfil the commitment, namely shortages of buildings and staffing levels.

Parliament reaffirmed these concerns in a cross party debate which forced the government to concede that August 2020 was always going to be difficult due to slow progress, before the current crisis outbreak.

Mr Cameron said: “Although the abandonment of the commitment is being ascribed to the Covid 19 pandemic, it was quite clear that the Government was already struggling.

“I am not in the least surprised by this news, but I am disappointed that, in their public statement, they have chosen to blame the failure entirely on the pandemic.

“At a time like this, ministers need to be straight with the public. There is a huge fund of goodwill across the community for dealing with this crisis and it should not be needlessly frittered away through questionable or incomplete statements.”