Meeting of the Parliament 26 November 2025
Mr Marra says that it is cheaper than this morning—it was extremely bad this morning. I will leave Mr Marra to make his own case for this disastrous budget.
It is quite clear that we are now in a doom loop of Rachel Reeves’s own making. Confidence in the economy has slumped, business confidence is dismal—the sharpest drop since Labour was last in power 17 years ago—and confidence in this Labour Government is shot beyond repair.
However, it did not have to be like this. When the Conservative Government left office, we were leading in terms of gross domestic product growth, which was twice what it is now, inflation was falling, interest rates were on a steadily downward path and the cost of living crisis was abating. The Conservatives recognise that things were far from perfect, and we are determined to learn from the mistakes that we made. I only wish that Michael Marra would do the same.
Last June, the green shoots of recovery were visible and very real, but they are now gone. Today’s reckless tax-and-spend budget—and, I suspect, the Scottish budget—will set us back further still, because it was a missed opportunity to promote economic growth; to deliver investment into Scotland; to address the alarming increase in economic inactivity; to reduce and not further inflate the benefits bill; to recognise the importance of backing and supporting working households; to ease the cost of living pressures; and to protect Scotland’s struggling rural economy.
As the debate that preceded this one made clear, our top ask for this budget was to end the energy profits levy, but the chancellor did not scrap it—in fact, she has extended it. We in the chamber should now share a very real concern for the oil and gas industry, including the jobs, the tax revenues and the wider economic activity that it generates, which the Office for Budget Responsibility has downgraded by £2.5 billion for this year alone.
To hear from John Swinney and the Scottish National Party hollow calls for the chancellor to scrap the windfall tax on oil and gas companies is, frankly, pitiful. That has more to do with John Swinney saving his own job than preventing further job losses in this vitally important sector.