John Swinney was accused of putting politics before the life of a 10-year-old girl as he came under attack for a series of scandals and cover-ups.

The SNP leader was confronted with the words of Kimberly Darroch, whose daughter Milly Main died after contracting an infection at the children’s wing of a crisis-hit Glasgow super-hospital during bruising exchanges in the final televised debate of the Holyrood election campaign.

He was also accused of turning Scotland into a ‘global laughing stock’ due to the ferries fiasco, was mocked for the SNP’s financial scandal and attacked for his ‘record of shame’ and for putting independence before a series of key issues.

Mr Swinney’s food price cap proposal was also branded a ‘PR stunt’ which will put shopper bills up and face years of court challenges.

In other exchanges during STV’s leader’s debate, Reform UK leader Malcolm Offord was mocked for the number of houses and boats he owns and distanced himself from Nigel Farage’s criticism of ‘ludicrous’ handgun laws in the wake of the Dunblane shooting, while the Scottish Greens were criticised for ‘extremist’ policies and branded the ‘SNP B-team’.

In the most explosive segment of Tuesday night’s debate, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar quoted Ms Darroch directly when cross-examining Mr Swinney on the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital scandal. 

She said: ‘My 10-year-old daughter Milly Main died after being treated at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, a hospital that your government opened, weeks before an election, before it was safe and ready.

‘Milly was recovering from cancer when she got an avoidable infection and died. We were never told the true cause of her death. That hospital was opened despite warnings it wasn’t safe. 

'People died, children got infections, staff were bullied and ignored, and we and other families have been gaslit for years. Why was I not told the truth and why was there a cover-up? Why was politics more important to you than my daughter’s life?’

Looking uncomfortable at the questioning, Mr Swinney said he offered ‘my sympathy and my regret’ at the fact families have suffered ‘to the awful extent that they have suffered’.

He said a public inquiry ‘is exploring all the issues’ Ms Darroch wants looked at.

But Mr Sarwar said Ms Darroch believes that he is using the public inquiry ‘as a cover to not answer questions to me and other families’.

He said: ‘The promise I make is this: if I’m First Minister, these families will get the truth and the justice they deserve, not the cover-ups and the secrecy that has become the hallmark of John Swinney and the SNP.’

When Mr Swinney cross-examined Mr Sarwar on Sir Keir Starmer, the Scottish Labour leader turned the tables on him to say: ‘I am very clear about calling out the actions and the failures whenever I see it, that’s the difference between you and I.

‘Because you were part of a party when two of the last three SNP First Ministers were arrested by Police Scotland and you stayed by their side. You are the man that appointed Peter Murrell to be the chief executive of the SNP and you take no responsibility at all about what’s happened, and then we talk about the ferries.

‘The question I have for you is why is the SNP always good at losing money? Where does the money go, John?’

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay also said Mr Swinney had been at the heart of the SNP Government for two decades – ‘a government of broken promises, wasted money, constant lies, sleazy ministers, Europe’s worst drug deaths, and forcing Scots to pay the highest tax in the UK, and that’s before you get to the major police investigation into your party’s finances’.

Asked if he was proud of that, Mr Swinney said he is ‘proud of the SNP and the change we make in Scottish society’. Mr Findlay said: ‘You are seriously saying you are proud of that record, that record of shame?’

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton raised the ferries fiasco, and said coastal and island communities ‘feel utterly shafted by your government’.

Mr Swinney said he understands the disruption island communities have felt and has provided a £10 million fund to support them, but Mr Cole-Hamilton said: ‘You have turned us into a global laughing stock. Can you understand why people in island and coastal communities are absolutely furious with your government?’

During earlier exchanges, Mr Swinney insisted that he can deliver the SNP manifesto pledge to impose price ceilings on up to 50 supermarket food items.

But Mr Sarwar said it was ‘a gimmick not real action’ and warned of years of legal action. He said: ‘I would convene the supermarkets immediate so we can drive down the prices.

‘He will take three years at least to pass that legislation and go through the legal challenges, I want action right now.’

Mr Findlay dismissed it as a ‘PR stunt for an election’.

Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer came under fire from Lord Offord for ‘extremist’ policies, while Mr Findlay branded the party as the ‘SNP B-team’.