Meeting of the Parliament 28 January 2025
Perhaps the cabinet secretary missed the Fraser of Allander Institute’s analysis of that ludicrous wheeze just last week. According to it—not me—the First Minister’s proposal that income tax in the rest of the UK should be lifted in order to pay for services in Scotland would result in a £636 million cut to the Scottish budget. That is how the fiscal framework works. Given that it was negotiated by John Swinney, one would think that he would know that.
Frankly, the proposal has no credibility whatsoever. The SNP is making it up as it goes along. This is a throwback to the First Minister’s time as finance secretary, when it was all short-term populism, slash-and-burn budgets and in-year emergency cuts when the cash ran out.
Scotland needs a new direction. Unfortunately, with regard to the reform programme, the substance of the budget does not provide that new direction. Leadership has to be willing to admit when things are not working and to do the hard work of making our public services fit for the future.
I move amendment S6M-16237.3, to leave out from “calls” to end and insert:
“understands that the additional investment in Scotland’s public services has been made possible by the UK Government’s Autumn Budget, which delivered record funding for the Scottish Government and provided an additional £5.2 billion; believes that the future of Scotland’s public services can only be guaranteed through measures to improve fiscal sustainability through public service reform and regrets the lack of progress being made by the Scottish Government in this area; recognises the role that workers in Scotland’s public sector play in delivering vital services and regrets that the workforce and public are being failed by years of Scottish National Party mismanagement, which has created major challenges across the public sector in Scotland and left one in six people in Scotland on NHS waiting lists, and calls for the Scottish Government to take meaningful action to reform public services so that they work for users and staff across Scotland.”
15:35Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.