Meeting of the Parliament 07 January 2026
The Parliament is designed to stand up for working people in Scotland. However, since the SNP took office, working people have been told—not asked, but told—to pay more, work harder and accept less in return. That is not fairness; it is failure.
Our motion is simple. We are calling on the Scottish Government
“to reduce income tax on working people”,
to uprate
“income tax thresholds in line with inflation in the forthcoming Scottish budget and in future Scottish Budgets”,
and to simplify a system that has become punitive, confusing and deeply unfair. We also believe that the Scottish basic rate and intermediate rate of income tax should be replaced with a
“single Scottish income tax rate of 19 pence on income up to the higher rate threshold”.
I do not think that those are radical demands. They are measures that are designed to put more money back into the pockets of everyday, ordinary, working Scots, to reduce the growing tax gap between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom and to begin repairing the damage that has been done by years of SNP income tax policy.
Middle earners—the nurses who care for us, the police officers who keep our communities safe and the teachers who are shaping our children’s futures—are all paying more in tax than they would pay anywhere else in the rest of the UK. What do they receive in return? They get fewer services, longer waiting times, crumbling infrastructure and a childcare system that still presents a huge financial barrier for many families.
We have heard from Jamie Hepburn, the minister and others today about all the free policies that are offered in Scotland, but, of course, they did not mention that those free policies are paid for by taxpayers up and down the country. That is the SNP’s record: higher taxes, lower value and broken promises.