THE Prime Minister appeared to threaten the Scottish Government's power over NHS Scotland during PMQs this afternoon.

Boris Johnson said the SNP would "foreit all right to manage" Scotland's health service if further waiting time targets are missed.

The Tory leader had been asked about NHS performance in Scotland by Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk MP John Lamont.

The Scottish Tory said: "In Scotland Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are letting down our wonderful NHS staff and the patients they look after. Waiting time targets have been missed, capital investment has been slashed and there’s a £1 billion maintenance backlog. Does the Prime Minister agree with me that rather than obsessing about independence referendums Nicola Sturgeon should end her neglect of Scotland’s NHS?"

The Prime Minister responded: "Mr Speaker I congratulate my honourable friend on everything that he does for his constituency in Berwickshire and he is absolutely right. That is why – as I said earlier – that is why they rant, to use his own word, so incessantly about independence. Because they wish to distract – they wish to dead cat as the saying goes – from the lamentable failures of the SNP Government in Scotland and he’s entirely right. If this goes on I think the SNP will forfeit all right to manage the NHS in Scotland."

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Health is a devolved matter, which means Scotland has control over its own health service.

Devolution reforms are due to be published before the end of the year, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack recently revealed.