Meeting of the Parliament 11 March 2015
Pension tax relief of £200 million would deliver the future fund for 18 and 19-year-olds and better bursaries. That would not happen with the SNP’s full fiscal autonomy.
In short, the SNP’s plans for full fiscal autonomy within the UK strip billions of pounds from our budget. There is no escaping that; it is a fact. Voting SNP at the general election will get austerity max: cuts to services or higher taxes, or a combination of both.
Scottish Labour has a better plan. Our plan will deliver major new powers to the Parliament, but retain the security of the Barnett bonus to protect our schools and our NHS.
That is the choice on 7 May, and the people of Scotland will choose wisely.
I move,
That the Parliament believes that full fiscal autonomy within the UK would have an immediate and detrimental impact on Scotland’s economy, particularly in light of this week’s Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland report; recognises that it would mean that Scotland would lose out on billions of pounds for public services, such as the NHS and schools, through the consequent scrapping of the Barnett formula; further believes that this would cut Scotland off from sharing in the wealth and resources of the UK, and calls on the Scottish Government to affirm that it would be better to retain the Barnett bonus than to have full fiscal autonomy within the UK.