Meeting of the Parliament 04 November 2015
Today is a historic day for the Scottish Parliament and a defining day for devolution. The members of this Parliament are going to look ahead to the future and lay out their plans to transform the lives of people in this country using the new powers that are coming to the Parliament. I have to say that, if the Scottish National Party does not support our motion today, that will confirm once and for all that the politics of grievance is more important to the SNP than helping working families in Scotland.
We have the power to make change; we have the money to pay for that change. The question is, does the SNP have the political will? Scottish politics is about to get real and it is not before time. At the Scottish Labour conference in Perth last weekend, Kezia Dugdale outlined Labour’s plans to protect working families. Scottish Labour will restore in full the money for tax credits.
Scottish Labour will make different choices on tax from the SNP Government in Edinburgh and different choices from the Tory Government in London. We would not implement the Tory tax cut for higher-rate earners; we would not implement the SNP’s tax cut for airlines. Tax cuts actually cost money. The SNP spends money to cut a tax, but we would spend that money differently. We would use that revenue to restore the money lost from tax credits for families in Scotland, using the new powers that are coming to the Scottish Parliament through the Scotland Bill.