Meeting of the Parliament 19 February 2026 [Draft]
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 looked as if taxes were going up at every single opportunity. Every time the Government spoke, new taxes were on the horizon, and Humza Yousaf spoke about even more tax rises being over the horizon if he had his way.
That is where I have a difference of opinion with the Government, because I think that we need to be incredibly careful. Of course there is behavioural change as a result of tax policy, but what matters even more is the trust that people have in Governments and what is going to happen next, and the rhetoric. If people think that the Government has lost control on taxation, they will make choices that will not benefit our economy when they have life choices to make about where to live, where to work, whether to work, whether to retire or whether to go part-time—in other words, behavioural changes.
I am not arguing for a reckless tax cut, as the Tories would, because we have to be very controlled and predictable and we have to give people confidence. However, I urge the Government to be incredibly careful when it makes any change whatsoever, because we do not want to go back to the days when people completely lost trust in what the Government was doing.
There is also a lesson to be learned from the Auditor General. Although the Government is now blaming the fiscal framework, which was negotiated and hailed by John Swinney, the result of the tax increase, which was supposed to be getting on for £1.8 billion, is only £600-odd million net, because of the fiscal framework and our lower earnings and lower employment growth in Scotland. The impact of the tax rise is therefore not as substantial as the Government hoped, so we have to be equally careful when we propose any tax changes.
As Michael Marra said, the tax resolution has to pass in order for us to move on to stage 3. We will support it today, but I urge the Government to look at the tax differentials between Scotland and the rest of the UK, to consider the behavioural change that has already happened as a result of the changes and to be incredibly careful.