Hansard

As John Swinney has outlined, we have used the major taxes that we have control over, such as the new land and buildings transaction tax, to raise the upper level, reduce the lower level and make the system much fairer than it was under Gordon Brown or Alistair Darling and fairer than it is under George Osborne—and that is just a start.

The member will know that, under the powers that we have at present over income tax, we cannot increase the upper rate without simultaneously increasing the lower rate by the same amount. That changes in 2017 and, as John Swinney has made absolutely clear, we will use every opportunity that we get to make the tax system fairer so that those who earn the most pay proportionately the most.

We will do that irrespective of what tax we are talking about, because we believe in a fairer society. We believe that people at the bottom end need a better deal. We believe that we should use the tax system and the benefits system as well as public spending and the social wage as tools to make our society fairer. That is why we have been out since last summer consulting people across Scotland on our document “Creating a Fairer Scotland: What Matters to You?”, and we will publish the results of that fairly soon. Creating a fairer Scotland is a top priority for the Government.

The problem that we have and the limitation on our ability to achieve our aim is that we lack the powers that really matter—those over the great swathe of tax policy that we do not control and over the great swathe of social security benefits that we will not control even under the provisions in the Scotland Bill. If we had control over all those things—over all taxation, spending and social security in Scotland—we could, even without independence, do much more than we are able to do or will be able to do with the limited powers that are afforded to us. That is the whole point.

On the tone of the debate, I think that Alex Rowley basically agrees with me and I agree with him about full employment, tackling poverty and deprivation and creating a fairer Scotland. The faultline between him and me is that I believe that this Parliament should have all the powers to make the big differences and create the society that I believe he really does believe in.

With the very limited powers that we will have, we can go so far, but we will not be able to go further until we have all the powers, because as long as there is a Tory Government or a Liberal and Tory Government in London, we can bet our bottom dollar that we will continue to get policies that make society less fair, reduce employment opportunities, treat the regions and countries outside the south-east as low priorities for investment and, to be frank, mean that we will continue not to get our fair share of the national wealth that is created by the United Kingdom. That is really the fundamental and probably the only major faultline between me and Alex Rowley. I believe that we have to get those powers. The Labour Party believes that we should be satisfied with the limitations of what we have and with what we are getting.

I joined the SNP 30-odd years ago because I believe in all the things that Alex Rowley talked about. When I was growing up in politics, we had all those things. We have gone back the way in the past 40 or 50 years under successive UK Administrations. I joined because I recognised that getting control over those areas of policy is a fundamental prerequisite for delivering the society that we in the SNP and, I believe, most Labour members want to see. That is why we are happy to support Alex Rowley’s motion along with our amendment. I am delighted that Mr Rowley and the Labour Party will be voting for our amendment and, for once, the Labour Party and the SNP will vote the same way at decision time at 5 pm.

We should never lose sight of the guilty men and women in London who are doing so much damage not just to poor people north of the border but to poor people throughout the United Kingdom, and we should never forget what the treacherous Liberals did by putting the Tories back into power and supporting all the right-wing policies that our people are now suffering from. That is a result of what the Liberals did in making David Cameron Prime Minister in 2010.

We will march on with implementing our policies for fairness, full employment, a fairer society and a better Scotland, and we will use and are using all the powers that are at our disposal to make that happen.

I move amendment S4M-15290.4, to insert at end:

“, and, in doing so, agrees that universal benefits such as free prescriptions, free tuition, concessionary fares for older and disabled people, free personal care and free school meals are all essential to tackling poverty and inequality effectively, as is the reversal of the damaging cuts to social security benefits and tax credits being imposed by the UK Government on Scotland’s most vulnerable citizens against the stated wishes of the Scottish people”.