Meeting of the Parliament 13 January 2026
Mr Swinney does not want to hear his litany of failure being read out in the chamber, because economic growth is an afterthought, public services are failing, and businesses, which are deprived of rates relief in full and still potentially face huge revaluation bills, are continuing to teeter on the brink, despite the modest concessions today.
Let us look at what Shona Robison has announced. There is more foreign aid when people are struggling at home, and there is a £36 million increase in the constitutional and external affairs budget—a secret stash for John Swinney’s secret plan. There are cuts to economically productive areas, including cuts to the budgets for the Scottish National Investment Bank and Scottish Enterprise. Does anyone beyond the SNP’s clapping seals believe that the fundamentals of the Scottish economy will improve as a result of today’s budget?
I have a question for Shona Robison as she prepares to ride off into the sunset, leaving someone else to clear up the mess that she has created. Will the overall tax burden on Scottish households and businesses rise or fall as a result of the budget? How many businesses and how many jobs will be lost as a result of this Government’s failure to pass on in full the rates relief that it has received in the past and its failure to create a new system in order to stop this damaging rates revaluation? Which infrastructure projects, such as the full dualling of the A96, will be shelved as a result of the on-going gap in this Government’s capital funding?
This failing SNP Government cannot reverse the rot that has set in to public finances and the £5 billion budget black hole that it still faces. Lily-livered Labour says that it will let the budget pass, the Liberal Democrats look set to be lining up to support it and Reform is rolling in behind more benefit spending. Therefore, ahead of an election that will be defined by the cost of living, is it not the truth that only the Scottish Conservatives are standing up for Scottish taxpayers, by saving Scotland from an SNP Government that relegates growth, puts welfare over work and is still wedded to high tax for hard-working Scots?