Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 18 June 2025
18 Jun 2025 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Economic Performance (A Better Deal for Taxpayers)
Michael Marra seems to want to defend that for some strange reason. The Conservatives proposed almost £1 billion in tax cuts last year in advance of the budget, and the impact of that approach on our essential public services, including our NHS, would be profound.
Our progressive approach to tax underpins the entire Scottish budget, allowing us to support the most generous social contract in any part of the UK, which includes things such as free prescriptions, free higher education and support such as the Scottish child payment, all of which would be put at risk with the Conservatives’ contrasting income tax proposals, which would seek to reverse our progressive approach and give the greatest tax cut to the top 25 per cent of income tax payers.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Annabelle Ewing)
SNP
The next item of business is a debate on motion S6M-17980, in the name of Craig Hoy, on demanding a better deal for taxpayers in Scotland. I invite members w...
Craig Hoy (South Scotland) (Con)
Con
Under the Scottish National Party, Scots are being hammered with high taxes while public services continue to decline. That is why the motion that I will mov...
John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (Ind)
Ind
Will the member give way?
Craig Hoy
Con
I have a lot of waste to identify, so I will give way later if I can. The SNP is costing Scotland £1 billion a year in lost growth and countless billions mo...
John Mason
Ind
Craig Hoy has given some examples, which is what I was going to ask him for. He says that we want to save on railways. Does that mean that safety goes down? ...
Craig Hoy
Con
I will gladly give to John Mason the two papers that I have that detail everything that we can do to cut the horrendous waste across the Scottish public sect...
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government (Shona Robison)
SNP
The investment that we are making this year in our public services is made possible by the tax choices that we have made and the vital additional funding tha...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
Cabinet secretary, please resume your seat. I will set some parameters here. I appreciate that some individuals are seeking to make an intervention, which is...
Shona Robison
SNP
Their position is not credible and the public knows that it is not credible, which is why the Tories have such low support among the public.
Liz Smith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Con
In Mr Hoy’s speech, he spelt out exactly what measures the Conservatives are going to take. Why can the cabinet secretary not admit that?
Shona Robison
SNP
We know the standard of what is provided by the Tories—unfunded tax cuts made on the back of a fag packet. We will take no lessons from a party that destroye...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
Mr Johnson, please do not.
Shona Robison
SNP
Michael Marra seems to want to defend that for some strange reason. The Conservatives proposed almost £1 billion in tax cuts last year in advance of the budg...
Stephen Kerr (Central Scotland) (Con)
Con
I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for giving way. When did she first become aware that there were at least £1 billion of savings to be made in efficienc...
Shona Robison
SNP
I am sure that Stephen Kerr will be on the front bench tomorrow to hear Ivan McKee’s statement on public service reform, in which he will set out the work th...
Daniel Johnson (Edinburgh Southern) (Lab)
Lab
Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?
Shona Robison
SNP
I will later, if I have time. Since 2007, gross domestic product per person in Scotland has grown by 10.3 per cent, compared with 6.1 per cent in the UK, an...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
It will need to be very brief, Mr Johnson.
Daniel Johnson
Lab
Would the cabinet secretary care to quote those figures since 2016 and acknowledge whether they are higher or lower for Scotland compared with the UK for tha...
Shona Robison
SNP
It is the long-term growth that matters. Interruption. I do not know why Daniel Johnson and the Opposition—
Daniel Johnson
Lab
Will the cabinet secretary give way?
Shona Robison
SNP
No, thank you. I do not know why Daniel Johnson and the Opposition cannot accept that it is a good thing that, since 2007, gross domestic product per person ...
Daniel Johnson
Lab
Will the cabinet secretary give way?
Craig Hoy
Con
Will the cabinet secretary give way?
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
The cabinet secretary is now in her final minute.
Shona Robison
SNP
Craig Hoy talked about an economic performance gap, but Professor Graeme Roy from the Scottish Fiscal Commission has been clear that, in the context of incom...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
You will need to conclude.
Shona Robison
SNP
To come back to the point about public service reform, tomorrow Ivan McKee will set out the detail of what we have been doing and what we will do. We will do...
Michael Marra (North East Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
In what is a feat of surprisingly accurate economic analysis that you would not expect from the acolytes of Liz Truss, the Scottish Tories have pinpointed on...
Liz Smith
Con
Will Michael Marra give way?