Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 19 February 2026 [Draft]
19 Feb 2026 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Scottish Income Tax Rate Resolution 2026-27
I will do so in a moment.
The strategy was cynically designed to engineer one headline, but members should consider what it has actually cost to produce that headline. The Government has committed £52 million to deliver a maximum saving for taxpayers of £32 per year. Independent analysts have called it
“the smallest income tax cut in history.”
Let us be clear that it is a joke from the SNP: a joke offering from a joke cabinet secretary representing a joke Government. However, that con trick conceals a real stealth tax raid on middle earners. By freezing the higher, advanced and top rate thresholds until 2028-29, the SNP is dragging hundreds of thousands more workers into tax bands that they were never meant to face—rates that were meant for the few but which are now being paid by the many.
In 2018, a band 5 teacher was earning £9,000 below the higher rate tax threshold; today, that same teacher is earning £9,000 above it. Apparently, teachers and nurses are the people with the broadest shoulders in John Swinney’s Scotland.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Annabelle Ewing)
SNP
The next item of business is a debate on motion S6M-20844, in the name of Shona Robison, on the Scottish income tax rate resolution 2026-27.16:13
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government (Shona Robison)
SNP
As I begin today’s debate, I will first draw the Parliament’s attention to the procedural connection between the debate and rule 9.16.7 of standing orders, w...
Craig Hoy (South Scotland) (Con)
Con
In what might be the only moment of consensus, we agree on the case for a progressive tax system, but how is it progressive to have a higher percentage of wo...
Shona Robison
SNP
About three quarters—74 per cent—of taxpayers are expected to be unaffected by the higher-rate threshold being maintained at the current level. The question ...
Stephen Kerr (Central Scotland) (Con)
Con
Made-up facts.
Shona Robison
SNP
Tory members might not like facts being pointed out to them, but they are facts nonetheless.The positive economic indicators that I have set out demonstrate ...
Craig Hoy (South Scotland) (Con)
Con
The cabinet secretary talks of stability. After 19 years of Scottish National Party Government, there is one thing that Scotland’s middle earners can be cert...
The Minister for Public Finance (Ivan McKee)
SNP
Will the member take an intervention?
Craig Hoy
Con
I will do so in a moment.The strategy was cynically designed to engineer one headline, but members should consider what it has actually cost to produce that ...
Shona Robison
SNP
Craig Hoy is one of the biggest jokers in this Parliament—he is not able to do the sums; £1 billion of tax cuts and extra spending commitments do not add up....
Craig Hoy
Con
It is interesting that the cabinet secretary admits that the benefits of the Barnett formula give her more money to give teachers high salaries, which the Go...
Ivan McKee
SNP
Craig Hoy said that the Conservatives’ alternative was costed, but if he listens back to last Friday’s edition of “Any Questions?”, which I was on with his c...
Craig Hoy
Con
The programme may be called “Any Questions?”, but I will give him an answer: our proposal is fully costed. We will match our £1 billion in tax cuts by cuttin...
Ross Greer (West Scotland) (Green)
Green
Craig Hoy says that the Tories would close the spending gap by cutting the benefits bill. The last estimates that I saw in studies in The BMJ and The Lancet ...
Craig Hoy
Con
The IFS has said that the Scottish Government is living in a parallel universe, and I think that Ross Greer is quoting data from a parallel planet. In relati...
Michael Marra (North East Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Rule 9.16.7 of the standing orders dictates that the Parliament must agree to a Scottish rate resolution before stage 3 proceedings for the budget bill can b...
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care (Neil Gray)
SNP
Michael Marra raises waiting times in Scotland. For the past seven months, NHS waiting times in Scotland have fallen. Does he have any comment to make on the...
Michael Marra
Lab
What I can comment on is the conversations that I have had just this week with people in Dundee who are having to take money out of savings and put money on ...
Ross Greer (West Scotland) (Green)
Green
Scotland has been on a journey. Over the past decade, we have come quite far on that journey when it comes to income tax and progressive taxation more widely...
Craig Hoy
Con
I thank Mr Greer for quoting my words back at me, but does he accept that, because of the woeful underperformance of the Scottish economy under the SNP, that...
Ross Greer
Green
I accept that the fiscal framework results in Scotland having to constantly compare its tax performance and income performance with those of London and south...
The Presiding Officer (Alison Johnstone)
NPA
Before I call Willie Rennie, I am aware of several conversations going on in the chamber. Let us be courteous to one another.16:37
Willie Rennie (North East Fife) (LD)
LD
I had a rather disturbing dream last night and it involved Craig Hoy. He listed every single Liberal Democrat achievement during the budget process, starting...
Craig Hoy
Con
Will Mr Rennie accept an intervention?
Willie Rennie
LD
Not just now.During the Humza Yousaf period, and also at the tail end of the Nicola Sturgeon Government, we saw the Government losing control so that it look...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
I call the minister to wind up.16:42
The Minister for Public Finance (Ivan McKee)
SNP
I thank members for their contributions to the debate. I will speak to some of those shortly.Parliament is being asked to vote on a key policy that underpins...
Craig Hoy
Con
That is not true.
Ivan McKee
SNP
Well, I look forward to seeing their detailed proposals on where those savings would come from.
Craig Hoy
Con
What about your proposals?