Meeting of the Parliament 14 December 2017
One thing that is absolutely clear from the Scottish Government’s budget today is that we cannot trust a word that the First Minister or the Scottish Government says. The wording in last year’s Scottish National Party manifesto was perfectly clear. It promised:
“We will freeze the Basic Rate of Income Tax throughout the next Parliament to protect those on low and middle incomes.”
Lest there be any doubt about what that meant, it was helpfully clarified by the First Minister in the chamber as recently as May 2017, when she said:
“When inflation is rising and living standards are under a lot of pressure, it is not right to increase income tax for those who are on the basic rate.”—[Official Report, 3 May 2017; c 9.]
Today, the SNP and every member of the Cabinet have broken their promise to the Scottish people. Despite pledging not to increase taxes for those on the basic rate—a pledge that was repeated 53 times—and despite 65 per cent of the Scottish population voting in May last year to endorse that position, they are today proposing to do the opposite and increase taxes for those on the basic rate. No one will believe a word that they say ever again.
Can the finance secretary tell me exactly how many people who are currently paying tax at the basic rate will see an increase in the tax that they pay as a result of the new nat tax that has been announced today?
Let me be clear: there is absolutely no justification for the tax rises that are being proposed. According to the Scottish Parliament information centre, the Scottish Government’s block grant from Westminster is going up, in real terms, from this year to next year. Further, the analysis that was published on Tuesday by the Fraser of Allander institute says:
“the Scottish Government’s total block grant (resource and capital but excluding financial transactions) is on track to increase by around 1% between 2016-17 and 2019-20.”
If the finance secretary had done his homework properly before he came to the chamber this afternoon, he would know that financial transactions are not included in that figure.
There we have it—no hundreds of millions of pounds in cuts, no Westminster austerity and a budget that is increasing in real terms over the next three years. Therefore, the tax rises for basic-rate payers that have been announced today are the result of policy choices that have been made by the SNP and no one else.
When we see the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s projections for economic growth, we will know exactly where the problem lies. They will show that the Scottish economy is projected to rise at a fraction of the rate at which the United Kingdom economy as a whole will rise. It is that failure to grow the Scottish economy and expand the tax base that has led the SNP to put its hands into the pockets of hard-working Scottish families and businesses to bail it out of the mess that it is making of the Scottish public finances.
Not only will we see taxes rise; once again, we are seeing cuts to local government. The front-line services that millions of families depend on—not least in our schools—will be slashed back at the same time as taxes are going up. Under the SNP, we all pay more but get less in return. The message of this budget is: in the SNP’s Scotland, do not be ambitious, do not be hard working and do not be successful, because we will penalise you for our failure to grow the Scottish economy.
Will the finance secretary take this opportunity to apologise on behalf of the Scottish Government for breaking its manifesto promise?