The Scottish Government has “manifestly failed” to dual the A9, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Fergus Ewing, has said, as he urged the Transport Secretary to speed up the £3.7bn project.

Ewing said he could not “elide myself from responsibility” from delays in the project, having previously been part of the government.

The SNP promised in 2011 that the road would be dualled from Inverness to Perth by 2025. In 2023, then transport secretary Mairi McAllan announced that would be pushed back a decade.

Campaigners criticised the move and have warned that the road, which is dualled in some parts, is dangerous and a frequent cause of injuries and deaths.

Ewing, the former rural economy and tourism secretary, has been a notable campaigner on the issue and critic of the Scottish Government.

He told the Transport Secretary that “a little bit of humility” in response to requests to speed up the project “would have been seemly”.

On Tuesday, plans to accelerate the dualling of the A9 were rejected by Transport Scotland, amid concerns that it could have the opposite effect and delay the project.

Tory MSP Maurice Golden accused the Scottish Government of not being honest with the public about whether it could have met its initial deadline of 2025.

Pointing to Transport Scotland’s claim that attempts to speed up the dualling could slow it down, he said: “This just further points to the degree in which the Scottish Government deceived the public by keeping up the pretence until two years ago that the project could be completed this year.

“And whether the Scottish Government is willing to accept this or not, either hanging on to the 2025 timeline for so long was an attempt (at) deceit or the revised immovable 2035 timeline is an attempt to deceive.”

Pic: Transport Scotland