THE Scottish government should focus on the NHS rather than trying to be world statesmen, communists said yesterday, as the SNP called for international pressure on Belarus.

Writing to the Labour government on Human Rights Day, SNP health secretary Neil Gray and external affairs secretary Angus Robertson called for action to persuade Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to release 1,400 political prisoners.

The letter welcomed the August announcement of £2.5 million in government support for “Belarusian human rights and civil society causes.”

But it added: “With a presidential election due to take place in Belarus in January 2025, suppression of opposition voices and repression of democratic freedom is increasing.

“We therefore would urge the Foreign Secretary [David Lammy] and minister for Europe [Stephen Doughty], as a matter of priority, to continue to put pressure on the Lukashenko regime and those in positions of power that aid the unjust imprisonment of so many.

“[We urge them to] call for the immediate release of all political prisoners, and other individuals detained in connection with their exercise of freedom of peaceful assembly in the post-election period, and stop political repression in the country.”

Communist Party of Britain Scottish committee chairman Keith Stoddart said: “[The same is] being committed in Palestine — in which both the UK and Scottish governments are complicit.

“They’re both cheering on the triumph of religious extremism in Syria, [while] at home, public services are crumbling [as] they back ploughing billions into fuelling war without end in Ukraine.

“With the Scottish NHS being in the state it is in, the SNP health secretary might be better placed spending Human Rights Day working on that, rather than trying to cosplay as a world statesman.”

The British government was contacted for comment.