In last Tuesday’s Greenock Telegraph, Labour list MSP Paul O’Kane said ‘At the briefing on Friday (NHS GGC officials briefed MSPs and MPs on the future of the GP out-of-hours service), we also heard that one of the reasons this decision is being made is because of NHS funding cuts by the SNP Government, and a lack of doctors’.

I was at the same meeting, as were two members of my staff, and we did not hear anyone utter those words. In my opinion, he is deliberately playing fast and loose with the truth. As I have said in the past, it seems to be a Labour tactic to deliberately misrepresent situations for political gain.

They are doing this in relation to the GP out-of-hours (GPOOH) situation, the police station, the council tax freeze and even EE.

In relation to GPOOH, the daily slew of ‘SNP bad’ appeared on social media – despite this decision being made by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s board, not the Scottish Government.

On the police station, there has again been a deliberate attempt to spread misinformation that is designed to instil worry and fear in local people – two feelings Labour like to evoke in people in the hope that they can scare people away from voting for the SNP. They do this as they don’t have a positive case to put forward.

On the council tax freeze, Councillor McCabe decided to make a political point and pick a fight with the Scottish Government. That ended in him having to u-turn the day after his Labour group backed proposals to increase council tax locally by 8.2 per cent.

On EE, list MSP Paul O’Kane once again is a stranger to facts. He suggests Ronnie Cowan MP and I raised the white flag. What we did was listen to EE and importantly, engage with EE staff.

Ultimately however, they have a facility in Glasgow which they have spent millions on, hence why they want to move their staff there.

I am hugely disappointed and frustrated at their decision to leave Inverclyde, but EE aren’t going to change their mind. No amount of posturing from Labour politicians is going to change that.

Maybe if the same Labour politicians had shown any sort of interest in EE before now, there might have been a different outcome. I spoke to staff on the day of the announcement, in the following days, and still do talk to staff. Some of them were calling out Labour politicians for their hollow words and crocodile tears.

To conclude, it is becoming increasingly difficult to have any sort of reasoned discussion about anything. Some would say that is politics – and while the old Punch and Judy politics routine can at times be humorous, I would question whether it serves Inverclyde well? I personally don’t think so.

So for anyone wanting to know my position on a matter, or discuss any local or national issue in more detail, I’d encourage them to contact my office.

Stuart McMillan MSP