Meeting of the Parliament 19 November 2024
I want to try to make some progress. Oliver Mundell will appreciate that I have taken three interventions.
There should be a debate on thresholds, including the level of agricultural property relief—or, indeed, income tax thresholds, which the Tories and SNP chose to freeze, thereby hammering ordinary workers in the pocket.
At a time when difficult decisions are needed to rebuild the country’s public finances, it is not credible for the SNP and Tories to continue to say that agriculture should be the only business that is completely exempt from any inheritance tax whatever, no matter the value of a farm, whether that is £1 million or £20 million.
The SNP believes that an ordinary farm worker in Scotland on £29,000 a year should pay more income tax than their counterpart in England, while Anders Holch Povlsen buys 89,000 hectares of land in Scotland to avoid paying hundreds of millions of pounds in inheritance tax—and, by doing so, is driving up land prices for local families. That is a growing problem that the SNP and the Tories want to ignore.
I have listened carefully today to the SNP and Tory spokespersons saying that they oppose any changes to inheritance tax. They have also said that they oppose the changes to national insurance. In fact, almost all the £40 billion of additional income that is proposed in the UK budget for the next two years will come from the windfall tax. They are just not being honest with the public. It lacks credibility for them to fail to admit where they would make £40 billion-worth of cuts in public spending, and that is the biggest threat to the agriculture budget, which is vital to ensuring that we deliver fair funding to Scotland’s farmers and crofters in order to support food security, sustainable farming and environmental restoration.
That is why I will always take on those who argue that agriculture is too heavily subsidised—I know that that support puts quality affordable food on our tables at a time when families still face a cost of living crisis. That is why I will continue to stand up for our food producers drowning in the sea of red tape caused by the Tories’ Brexit deal and sell-out trade deals, and by the delays and dithering of the SNP Government, which still does not have a clear plan for future rural support. That is why I will fight to ensure that the record public sector investment that the UK Government budget provides will lead to more of the food that is purchased across the public sector being locally produced.
When I see damage being inflicted on rural communities, with closed cottage hospitals, dental deserts and all the other issues that I have raised, I will make no apology for also standing up for more public sector investment. That means being honest with the public and saying that we have to restore our broken public finances so that we can provide certainty and security of funding for Scotland’s farmers and crofters, and, ultimately, end austerity and support Scotland’s rural and island communities.
I move amendment S6M-15508.1, to leave out from “is disappointed” to end and insert:
“welcomes the increase to the Scottish devolved budget of £1.5 billion in 2024-25 and £3.4 billion next year, which will deliver the highest ever devolved budget settlement of £47.7 billion in 2025-26 as a result of the UK Government’s Budget; agrees that the Scottish Government should use the record devolved settlement in the forthcoming Scottish Budget to ensure fair funding to Scotland’s farmers and crofters to support food security, sustainable farming and environmental restoration, and to invest in Scotland’s public services and infrastructure, recognising the long-term challenges facing rural and island communities in housing, public transport, including ferries, education, health and social care, poverty and depopulation, and further agrees that restoring public finances is vital to provide certainty and security of funding for Scotland’s farmers and crofters and to support Scotland’s rural and island communities.”
Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.