Finance Secretary Shona Robison has urged MSPs to back her budget plans for the coming year, insisting the measures she has proposed will “improve the lives of people across Scotland”.
Ms Robison, who is also Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, spoke out ahead of the first vote at Holyrood on her tax and spending proposals for 2024-25.
But with the budget setting out tax rises for higher earners, along with cuts to spending in some areas, opposition parties vowed to vote against what they branded a “tax and axe” budget from the Scottish Government.
Speaking ahead of Thursday’s debate in the Scottish Parliament, Tory finance spokesperson Liz Smith said: “The Scottish Conservatives will obviously vote against Shona Robison’s disastrous tax-and-axe budget, which has been almost universally condemned.”
She spoke out against the “damaging provisions of this deeply flawed budget” saying they would do “huge damage to Scotland’s economy and public services”.
Labour finance spokesperson Michael Marra also vowed his party would oppose the “damaging budget”.
He accused the SNP and their Green partners in the Scottish Government of using “dodgy accounting to hide swingeing cuts”.
Mr Marra said: “Seventeen years of SNP incompetence and chaos has left public finances in dire straits and public services at breaking point.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton confirmed his MSPs too will vote against the draft budget – claiming it “impoverishes councils and deals a hammer blow to everyone waiting for healthcare”.
Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “Astonishingly, this is a budget that delivers a housing cut in the midst of a housing crisis and will starve us of the skills and green jobs needed to kick-start growth.
“People need a liberal budget that invests in local services, mental health and growing the economy. Instead they are getting cuts, cuts and more cuts.”
Despsite Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats all vowing to vote against it, support from SNP and Green MSPs will ensure the Scottish Government’s Budget Bill passes its first Holyrood hurdle, ahead of a final vote later this month.
Ms Robison meanwhile insisted Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement had presented her with a “fiscal challenge”, as she accused the UK Government of having “delivered the worst case scenario for Scotland’s finances and failed to invest in public services”.
The Finance Secretary said: “In these circumstances, I have presented a budget rooted in fairness and the social contract we have built with the Scottish people.
“This is a budget which puts our values into action, invests in the future, and will improve the lives of people across Scotland.
“I am urging all members to support the Budget Bill in today’s Stage One vote.”
Enjoy the convenience of having The Sunday Post delivered as a digital ePaper straight to your smartphone, tablet or computer.
Subscribe for only £5.49 a month and enjoy all the benefits of the printed paper as a digital replica.
Subscribe