Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 25 February 2021
The SNP is seeking members’ agreement to the proposed rates and bands for Scottish income tax. The Scottish Conservatives believe that it is unfair to burden hard-working Scots with more taxes or to widen the tax gap between Scotland and the rest of Britain, as the SNP has done in previous years.
Willie Rennie mentioned trust. I will repeat Murdo Fraser’s point. The 2016 SNP manifesto said:
“We will freeze the Basic Rate of Income Tax throughout the next Parliament to protect those on low and middle incomes.”
The SNP Government broke a manifesto promise and raised taxes for more than a million Scots. The transition point at which Scots begin to pay more tax than they would if they lived in the rest of the UK is £27,393, which would have come under the UK Government’s basic rate.
Nicola Sturgeon said in the Parliament:
“I have been very clear that the Government will not increase income tax rates.”—[Official Report, 2 February 2017; c 10.]
The Government was elected on a manifesto promise not to increase income tax rates, but it broke that promise.
In 2016, almost two thirds of Scots—64.6 per cent—voted in the Scottish Parliament election for parties that promised not to raise taxes. The Deputy First Minister declared:
“I want to say to teachers and public service workers the length and breadth of the country ... that the last thing that I am going to do is put up their taxes.”—[Official Report, 3 February 2016; c 19-20.]
The former Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Constitution—remember him?—said:
“A Government’s first point of reference is surely the manifesto on which it was elected … our first position is to look at the manifesto.”—[Official Report, Finance and Constitution Committee, 11 January 2017; c 40.]