FBU Scotland hit out at First Minister John Swinney’s “empty plaudits” towards firefighters tackling wildfires today, after more than a decade of cuts.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has been tackling a blaze at Nethy Bridge near Aviemore in the Cairngorms since last week, using helicopters to “waterbomb” the flames.

Paying tribute to firefighters during a visit to the site of the blaze, Mr Swinney said: “We’re clearly facing significant changes in our climate and the prevalence of wildfires in Scotland on a now, unfortunately, frequent basis is an indication that climate change is happening.

“So, what we’ve got to make sure is that we have the resources and the skills in place to tackle the wildfires. I want to pay tribute to everybody that was involved in extinguishing the fire.”

Responding to calls for more funding for SFRS to tackle the increasing threat of wildfire, the First Minister insisted: “The Scottish government gave the fire and rescue service an increase in the budget for this year and obviously the nature of the fire risk that we’re facing as a country is changing.

“We’ve got to make sure resources are deployed in a way that meets the challenges that we face as a society.”

But FBU Scottish executive council member Colin Brown pointed to £900m of cuts to the service and the axing of more than 1,200 front-line firefighting jobs since SFRS was formed in 2013, “increasing the risk to them and the public alike.”

He said: “These large-scale resource intensive incidents show clearly that instead of cutting fire services, government needs to invest more.

“Empty plaudits from politicians without investment in the Fire and Rescue Service is the equivalent of banging pots and pans for the NHS, a nice gesture that ultimately delivers nothing.”