SCOTTISH Labour pledged to deliver faster cancer care today after it was revealed that 35,000 patients did not receive their treatment since the SNP last met its targets.

Party leader Anas Sarwar slammed the ruling party as “incompetent” ahead of the May elections, saying First Minister John Swinney has put “thousands of lives at risk.”

The Scottish branch of the Labour Party published data showing that the care standard target for 95 per cent of patients with urgent suspicion of cancer to receive their first treatment in under 62 days was not met since 2012.

It claimed a total of 35,048 patients waited more than 62 days in this time, which amounted to nearly a fifth of those who received a referral.

Mr Sarwar said: “These numbers should shame John Swinney and the SNP, who have put thousands of lives at risk with their incompetence.

“Quick treatment saves lives, but under the SNP more than 35,000 cancer patients were let down by long waits in the SNP’s 13 years of failure.

“The truth is John Swinney and the SNP have no idea how to fix the mess they have made of our NHS.

“After nearly two decades of SNP government, our NHS has gone backwards rather than forwards despite the tireless work of fantastic NHS staff.”

He promised that if Labour were elected to Holyrood in the next elections, it would speed up diagnosis and treatment by expanding Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services.

Mr Sarwar added his party would improve cancer screenings across the board, including through “faster rollout of cervical cancer self-screening, a pilot prostate cancer screening programme and targeted lung cancer screening.”

The Scottish government was contacted for comment.