Workers are not political footballs MSPs have been told.

At First Minister’s Questions, Douglas Ross, Scottish Tory leader, raised the issue of the delayed and overbudget CalMac ferries being built at Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow.

Ross waved a photo of Humza Yousaf visiting the shipyard in 2016 to make his point to the First Minister about the length of the delay.

He said the visit was to mark the halfway point in the construction of the ferries and asked Yousaf “How is he going to fix it?”.

Now, GMB Scotland has challenged the Conservative leader to detail what his plan is for the future of the Ferguson yard and accused him of staging a stunt.

The union said it was “the latest example of MSPs using workers at the publicly-owned yard as a political football”.

The GMB convenor at the yard, Alex Logan, said the reputation of a skilled workforce was being “dragged through the mud.”

Mr Logan said: “The continuing point-scoring of politicians does not create or protect a single job in Scotland or help build a single ship.

“Politicians of all parties should be outlining their plans for the future of Ferguson’s and the jobs there.”

He urged MSPs to help build an industrial strategy to replace CalMac's ageing fleet with ferries built in Scotland, using domestic supply chains to protect and create jobs at shipyards like Ferguson's.

He said: “We have new contracts from BAE for work on the Royal Navy’s Type 26 frigates. If they have confidence in the workforce to deliver why can’t our MSPs.”