THE First Minister stood by her record in government yesterday, after opposition parties accused her of neglecting the day job in her push for indyref2.

She rubbished claims the public were unhappy with her administration pointing out that the SNP had won last week’s General Election “comprehensively.”

In a restless session of First Minister’s Questions – the last of the decade – interim Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw challenged the First Minister on standards in education and missed waiting times in the Scottish NHS.

He said: “First Minister, you can run from your record of missed targets but you can’t hide from it.

“As we enter 2020, we’ve seen PISA figures show science and maths performance at record lows, violent crime going up for the fourth year in a row, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde suing the construction firm which built out largest hospital, commissioned by Nicola Sturgeon, and embarrassing failures in public transport on sea and rail.

“Some might even say that it is inarguable that every public service in the care of this SNP Government ends 2019 in a worst state that when the year began.

“Surely in 2020, fixing this should be the priority of any Government worthy of the name?”

READ MORE: FMQs Sketch: Indyref2 tops Santa’s wish list for Christmas yet to come

Sturgeon said she had put the record of her party in office forward at the ballot box last Thursday.

“These are my priorities day in and day out, and I don’t run from the record of my Government,” Sturgeon told the Scottish Tory leader.

“I put that record before the Scottish people in an election last week and let me remind Jackson Carlaw what happened – the SNP won that election comprehensively and the Tories lost it just as comprehensively.

“All these tired lines were rejected by the electorate just last week, which is why in 2020 I’ll get on with the job of improving our public services, of making sure that Scotland’s public services continue to perform better than they do under the Tories in England and under Labour in Wales.”

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie echoed Carlaw’s comments: “Every hour that she takes off to hold another press conference at Bute House is another hour wasted in trying to sort out those issues for the people of Scotland.”

Sturgeon hit back: “Not for the first time, Willie Rennie appears to have borrowed Jackson Carlaw’s question.

“Maybe they should just merge and be done with it.”

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard urged the Scottish Government to develop an industrial strategy to protect jobs.

He was speaking as it emerged that the majority of work from the proposed Seagreen wind farm in the Firth of Forth was going to a company from China.

Leonard said just 15% of the work for the Neart Na Gaoithe wind farm was going to the Scottish supply chain – which he said were “crumbs from the table”. He added: “Workers at Arnish Point are being paid off tomorrow, just days before Christmas, while CS Wind in Machrihanish is also serving its workers with P45s.”

Leonard pointed out that former first minister Alex Salmond had claimed Scotland could become the “Saudi Arabia of marine power”, and has claimed 130,000 jobs would be created. Responding, Sturgeon said: “I genuinely appreciate his interest in these matters but can I point out to Richard Leonard that many of the powers that influence this, over energy, over employment law, remain reserved to the UK Government.

“So, when Labour continues to have its ‘period of reflection’ and considers again, in a very welcome way, its position on independence, perhaps these are all points that Richard Leonard and his colleagues would like to bear in mind.”