THE Presiding Officer was forced to intervene in a fiery clash between Humza Yousaf and Anas Sarwar after the First Minister accused the Labour MSP of “arrogance and hubris”.

Sarwar had brought up Yousaf’s record in government at FMQs on Thursday, which marked one year since the SNP leader was formally chosen as First Minister by MSPs.

The Scottish Labour group leader accused Yousaf of having “no vision, no strategy and no plan [and] failing on the basics of government”.

He went on: “In health, NHS waiting lists have gone up in the past year, with tens of thousands of more people added. On the economy, a complete failure to deliver growth and businesses struggling and cancelling investment.

“In justice, green-lighting plans to let crimes go uninvestigated and police stations closing across the country. In education, standards falling, violence rising and teacher numbers being cut.”

Sarwar then asked: “After just a year in the job how can Scotland afford another two years of this?”

In his response, the SNP leader pointed to policies that analysis has found will lift 100,000 Scots children out of poverty compared to if they were only living under the Westminster government.

Yousaf also pointed to NHS staff strike action in England and Wales, where it has been avoided in Scotland, and growth in “key economic indicators under this government” such as GDP and private-sector employment.

The First Minister added: “And what is Anas Sarwar's record? The only consistency over the last year is that he is completely inconsistent.

“U-turned, dumped every single principle or policy and fallen into line behind Keir Starmer.”

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Sarwar then began listing criticism of Yousaf from other figures within the SNP.

He mentioned Pete Wishart’s criticism of the “Tory-free Scotland” slogan, Kate Forbes’s suggestion that Yousaf lacked a “big vision,” and Alex Neil’s claim that the SNP’s General Election strategy is “mince”.

Yousaf then plunged the chamber into chaos after he accused Sarwar of displaying “his famed arrogance and hubris … taking the people of Scotland for granted”.

Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone had to intervene as the Conservative benches joined the jeers led by Sarwar from the Labour side.

After calm, Yousaf went on: “When it comes to vision, let me remind Anas Sarwar it was just last week that his colleagues in UK Labour were praising Margaret Thatcher for her vision.

“In the year that I have been First Minister, I can stand here and say that I have stood by my values and my principles.

“Those values and those principles will see an estimated 100,000 children lifted out of poverty.

“Those values will see record investment in our NHS, record numbers of junior doctors joining the NHS.

“They have seen the implementation of a fully funded council tax freeze – despite Labour's best efforts to thwart it.

“Those values have seen private sector employment grow in Scotland higher than any other UK nation.

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“And as I say, the only consistency Anas Sarwar has is inconsistency … most shamefully is the latest betrayal of the WASPI women that Annas Sarwar promised to campaign for and he's now turned his back on. Unforgivable. The WASPI woman won't forget, nor will they forgive.”

In 2019, Labour pledged to compensate the “WASPI” women who lost out amid changes to the state pension age.

However, now an ombudsman has said those women do deserve compensation, the party is refusing to commit to it.

Scottish Labour has also still not issued a statement in response to multiple UK Labour frontbenchers praising Margaret Thatcher.