John Swinney backs Neil Gray after second apology to MSPs

Swinney said the health secretary’s initial statement had the necessary “caveats”, but that his answer to Kerr “had one word too many… which was the word all”.

“It’s one of these situations where, in a long statement, one answer was not as complete as it needed to be, and he has apologised,” the first minister told reporters.

“So it was a mistake, and he described it as an inadvertent error, and I would accept that.”

Swinney defended Gray following a speech in Glasgow to announce proposals for a Scottish visa which would allow university graduates to remain in the country.

The powers required to set up such a scheme lie with the UK government, which has previously said it was not considering calls for a separate Scottish visa.

The first minister was also asked if the government was about to officially scrap the already delayed National Care Service, which will be the subject of a parliamentary statement on Thursday.

The SNP leader said he would not pre-empt the statement, adding that while there was a consensus that social care needs to improve, there was not “a consensus about how we go about doing that”.