Meeting of the Parliament 20 February 2018
On the tourism tax, the Government had the option of bringing forward emergency legislation, which would have meant investment of £70 million in next year’s budget. I will tell members what the difference is between Labour’s approach and the Government’s approach. We have heard a litany of excuses from Mr Mackay as to why he cannot raise tax and why he cannot produce a substantial investment plan that addresses the issues that are at the heart of Scotland’s communities. The reality is that he did not have the political will to bring such a plan forward. His proposals tinker round the edges.
I do not think that it is right that MSPs should be paying only 29p more per week in tax. As a Parliament, surely we can do much more than that? After 10 years, the SNP’s approach to the tax debate sums the party up. There is a complacent attitude at the heart of Government. We do not have to go too far from this Parliament to find people sleeping rough on the streets, and to find children who have holes in their shoes and families who cannot buy them proper clothing to go to school in. In the past 24 hours, we have seen that the level of drug deaths in Scotland is the highest in the EU. Those are all issues that are of real concern to the Parliament—they are real challenges. When they are raised, however, SNP members shrug their shoulders and say that they are doing their best and that we must not criticise them. That is simply not good enough.
We have had too many excuses. What we needed was a much more ambitious tax plan. We needed a budget that was rooted in fairness and designed to invest in public services and support economic growth. We needed a budget that was going to meet the big challenges and produce an alternative that would deliver for Scotland’s communities. In that regard, the SNP’s rate resolution and the SNP’s budget fall way short and should be rejected at 5 o’clock.
14:57