A rattel John Swinney tried to defend yesterday to spend £ 1 billion on a 'five -star prison' because he was accused of building a 'luxury resort' for rapists and murderers.
In the midst of angry scenes with the questions of First Minister, the Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said that the SNP government wasted the public cash on HMP Glasgow.
He told MSPs at Holyrood that the price tag, which has risen ten times since the original estimates, included 'nonsense' as landscaped gardens, an orchard, amphitheater steps and special boxes for birds and bats.
But Mr Swinney defended the money that was spent on the replacement for the notorious Barlinnie prison of the city and noticed Mr. Findlay questions as 'Reprehensible and despicable'.
During a heated FMQs, Mr. Findlay said: 'Instead of building a prison with a high security to lock rapists and murderers, John Swinney thinks he is building a luxury resort or a nature reserve.
'The new Barlinnie will cost a billion, but the SNP seems to think that it is a bargain.
'John Swinney wastes more in a five -star prison than the SNP spent on the flagship of Scotland Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
“As an urgency, John Swinney must undertake to lower these shameful costs.”
The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, which was opened in 2015, cost £ 842 million.
John Swinney rejected the criticism of a new prison project as 'absolutely reprehensible and despicable' at Holyrood
Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow has long been one of the most difficult prisons in the UK
The new 1,344 house prison, which the Victorian 987 place Barlinnie Jail has to replace in 2028, costs £ 998.4 million, the SNP government unveiled Tuesday.
The costs are 10 times the original estimate of 2014, which SNP ministers attributed to extra places and unbridled inflation in the construction sector since the pandemic.
During yesterday's Echanges, Mr. Findlay Mr Swinney offered a bet that the bill would 'only go higher' and asked if £ 1 billion 'good value was for the taxpayers of Scotland'.
Mr Swinney said it was' essential 'to replace Barlinnie and it it was said that the' full rigor of cost analysis' had been applied to the project and ministers' would be careful 'costs'.
Mr. Findlay said: “The Minister of Justice says that it will” be based on small communities that live together and support each other. “
'There will be an orchard of fruit trees, there will be beautiful landscape gardens, plant beds, poly tunnels, amphitheatre-like steps.
'I am not doing this well – there will be small boxes for owls and bats to live in and special stones for the birds.
'The SNP expects hard -working Scottish taxpayers to pay nonsense.
“We certainly need common sense by building a prison at minimal costs for taxpayers, not maximum benefits for prisoners.”
A furious Lord Swinney replied: 'I think the tone of Mr. Findlay's question is absolutely reprehensible and despicable.
The impression of an artist from the replacement of Barlinnie
The Scottish conservative leader Russell Findlay described plans for the new prison if it looks like 'a luxury resort or a nature reserve'
“If he wants to have a dividing line in politics about things like this, then I would like to be on the other side of Russell Findlay's argument and all the cohorts he strives for in his question.”
Mr. Findlay said the cohort with which he spoke was 'hard -working Scots'.
He said, “They are taxpayers who want every pound to be spent on the best possible schools and hospitals, not at the best possible prisons.”
The prime minister said that HMP Glasgow would cost £ 740,000 per place, in the middle of £ 610,000 to £ 840,000 per place in England and Wales.
It would also be almost double the original prison proposal of 700 space.
Mr. Findlay hit back: “The prison has doubled in size, but costs 10 times as much – that is SNP economy there.”
In the midst of raw scenes, Mr Swinney accused Mr. Findlay of the use of 'annoying rhetoric' to strengthen the support of his party against the threat of reform UK.
“I have balanced 10 budgets in this country and delivered for your money, and I will continue to do this,” the FM added.
HMP Glasgow, located in Provanmill in the eastern end of the city, will be 'Net Zero' and 'Trauma informed', which means that he is designed with prisoner in mind.
Planning documents say that it will have a variety of 'landscape zones' that 'maintain a safe environment', 'improve biodiversity' and 'well -being'.
They include an entrance square 'defined by a strong sense of arrival', with 'amphitheater seats … through which passers -by can pause and live'.
There will also be an 'ecological improvement area' with 'grassland, wetland meadow and a pond', bird and bat boxes and 'Log Piles' for wildlife to hibernate in it.
A 'health and welfare garden' dedicated to 'reflection, prayer and meditation' will use 'low-growing sensory plants to involve the senses' and fixed seats in the midst of the plants' to a positive, quiet and quiet environment reaches'.
And a proposed horticultural area will have 'beds, allocation plots, fruit trees and polytunnels' to grow products and give prisoners the opportunity to learn new skills.
In response to the outburst of the FM, the Scottish deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: 'If that is the view of John Swinney to be criticized because he had £ 1 billion of taxpayers spread money in a luxury prison with MOD cons, he is Moreover, no contact with the contact the Scottish people than we realized. '
