Meeting of the Parliament 11 February 2016
Today, this Parliament makes a decision for the first time about the Scottish rate of income tax. Real financial responsibility has come to the Parliament, and with it come real choices that speak to who we are and what we value. Today we have a choice: we can choose to use our powers to end Tory austerity and invest in our country’s future, or we can choose to do nothing and preside over hundreds of millions of pounds of cuts. We choose to use our powers.
This is something that Nicola Sturgeon used to believe in. She used to say that more powers meant fewer cuts, but now her Scottish National Party Government will vote with the Tories to continue the cuts. It could be so different. If we choose today to reject the do-nothing proposal before us and instead say that we want to set the rate of income tax just a penny higher than George Osborne does, we would stop not just council cuts but cuts in this year’s Scottish budget altogether. We can increase it in real terms by more than £100 million.
I have heard SNP members ask why we are being asked to pay for Tory austerity. Talk about missing the point. We are being asked to pay not to have Tory austerity.
What about the cuts to come in years 2 and 3? They are hidden from sight because John Swinney does not want to tell us how bad it will be, but make no mistake about it: if the SNP votes for the status quo tonight, the cuts for 2016-17 will be as nothing in comparison with the future—and they will be John Swinney’s cuts.