TOM GORDON, Scottish Political Correspondent April 15 2005

LABOUR'S Scottish manifesto launch backfired yesterday by reminding voters that NHS waiting times can be twice as long in Scotland as in England. The gaffe allowed the SNP and Tories to make the health service the dominant issue of yesterday's campaign, as they highlighted what has become Labour's Achilles' heel in Scotland in spite of record investment. After the launch, both parties pursued Jack McConnell over the differences at first minister's questions, accusing him of letting down Scottish patients. Labour had intended to use the launch of the 118-page booklet to focus attention on the "harmony" between the party's ministers in Holyrood and Westminster, a relationship they said would suffer if the Tories were elected on May 5.

Appearing alongside Mr McConnell in Edinburgh, Alistair Darling, the Scottish secretary, had also hoped to talk up Labour's record on the economy as he gave a commitment to full employment. However, the highlighting of a commitment on the NHS ? first made in December, but now given added attention ? derailed their plans.

The manifesto repeated a Scottish Executive pledge that by 2008 no patient would have to wait more than 18 weeks to see a consultant as an out-patient after being referred by a GP. If necessary, there would then be another wait of up to 18 weeks for treatment as an in-patient, a maximum total of 36 weeks. However, as journalists reminded both ministers, Labour had made a far more ambitious pledge in the manifesto it launched south of the border on Wednesday. In England, Labour has said the maximum wait from GP referral to treatment will be a total of 18 weeks end-to-end, and could be just under 10 weeks. Asked about the dramatic difference, Mr McConnell initially talked around the substantive issue, claiming the executive was setting its 18-week target for implementation by the end of 2007, a year sooner than the NHS in England, even though they were targets for different things.

But, as more than half of Labour's Scottish candidates looked on in silence, he was pressed again on the matter, and finally accepted that in Scotland there were two targets: "Eighteen weeks for outpatients and also 18 weeks for the treatment." He added that, when Labour set out its stall for the 2007 Scottish elections, it would make a commitment to reduce the waiting times even further ? but by then the damage was done. A further irony was that health is a devolved issue, and technically not a consideration for the general election.

But, knowing its importance as a bread-and-butter issue for voters, Labour included a section on the NHS in its Scottish manifesto. The Scottish edition also differed by omitting English innovations such as walk-in centres for commuters and specialised diagnostic and testing services. Where the English manifesto boasted NHS waiting times were down, the Scottish one merely said that Labour was "committed to cutting waiting times", as both in and out-patient waits have risen in Scotland since 1997.

However, Labour in Scotland was able to boast of markedly better figures on heart surgery times and cancer deaths than England. A Scottish party spokesman later tried to downplay the row. "This manifesto is not about making promises on health and education," he said. But he conceded that the Labour-led executive had a "different commitment" from Labour in London, as it was prioritising the treatment of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Mr McConnell's discomfort continued at the first question time of the election campaign.

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader at Holyrood, flaunted a booklet of campaign statistics compiled by two Scottish MPs for Labour party members, which cited only positive English NHS figures. "Does the first minster think that is because his colleagues are ashamed of his record of waiting lists and waiting times?" she asked. Mr McConnell said there were fewer people waiting more than six, nine, or 12 months on the NHS, lower in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK. David McLetchie, Scottish Tory leader, then claimed waiting times were "Scotland's international disgrace". Mr McConnell said the NHS had been a "mess" under the Tories.