SCOTTISH Transport Secretary Michael Matheson is facing calls to resign after Labour accused him of handing ScotRail a “licence to fail” until next summer.

Mr Matheson confirmed that the government “has agreed not to enforce compliance” with performance targets, so long as punctuality “does not fall more than 1 per cent below” the requirements set out in ScotRail’s franchise.

Following the revelation, Transport Salaried Staffs Association general secretary Manuel Cortes called for Mr Matheson to quit.

“Minister Matheson should be roasted at Holyrood. The clue is in his job title: ‘Transport Minister.’

“If he doesn’t want to live up to that job, he should do the decent thing and resign.”

Last month, performance statistics showed that ScotRail’s first-quarter reliability figures for this year were the worst since records began in 1997-8.

The firm’s figures for punctuality over the same period were the worst since 2005-6 and it failed to meet its punctuality target for all of 2017-18.

Scottish Labour transport spokesman Colin Smyth said: “It is shocking that ScotRail have been given licence by Transport Scotland to fail for an entire year.

“The benchmarks in the franchise are supposed to ensure passengers receive a decent service. ScotRail have been failing to hit these targets for years.”

But a spokesman for Mr Matheson hit back: “Labour’s hypocrisy knows no bounds.

“Most rail cancellations are caused by issues which are the responsibility of Network Rail, which is run by Westminster — but Labour have opposed the devolution of those functions to Holyrood.

“Scotrail’s performance is better than the UK average, but we want and need to see it improve.”

Conrad Landin is the Morning Star’s Scotland Editor.