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.”