Meeting of the Parliament 14 December 2017
I can see why James Kelly was reshuffled after 24 hours in the post of finance spokesperson. Kezia Dugdale might be back from the jungle, but I understand that James Kelly is auditioning for “Pointless”. [Interruption.] See what I mean, Presiding Officer?
In the proposition that I set out, income tax will be made more progressive. That is an important shift. The more money someone earns, the more they will pay towards public services in Scotland. Why did I not go further with the top rate of tax? All the advice that I was given by the Scottish Fiscal Commission, the Council of Economic Advisers and others was that that was the optimal point at which to raise the most money. Surely the objective of the exercise is to raise more money to invest in our public services in a fair and progressive way. The Labour Party is saying that we should set a higher rate for whatever reason, but that would raise less, which would mean less money for things such as local government.
I am trying to raise more money in a fair and progressive way. Do we get it yet? Are we there yet? To be helpful, I will share the workings of the SFC and the Council of Economic Advisers to show how the rate that I have set is absolutely meeting the commitment on raising the optimum amount of money for Scotland’s public services.