SCOTLAND’S First Minister has said there could be an early Holyrood election if the Budget fails to pass in December.
The Scottish Greens cast doubt on whether they would support the SNP Government’s spending plans earlier this week after Swinney appeared to drop plans for universal free school meals for P6 and P7 children in his debut Programme for Government.
The Greens are also aggrieved by the Scottish Government’s decision to favour a UK-wide ban on conversion practices instead of moving forward with its own legislation.
Green MSP Ross Greer said the SNP were “not acting in good faith” on free school meals.
“That was something we had agreed and if we can’t even get previous agreements delivered on how can we possibly trust them to deliver on any new agreement that we would reach later this year?” he said.
While Swinney said he was confident of striking a deal to ensure the Budget succeeds, he did say an election was a possibility if he does not manage.
He told The Times: “Various parties have voted for our budgets over time and parliament has to address the fact that there has to be a budget agreed if we are to put money into our public services.
“So if we don’t do that, then public services don’t have the money to operate or support pay rises or whatever.”
When it was put to him that a failure to pass the tax and spending plans could lead to an election, he said: “Or there could be an election, but then I don’t think members of the public particularly want politicians to have elections when they don’t want to have them.”
Swinney said there was “a lot of water to go under the bridge before we get near the Budget” and that he had “a wee bit of experience of that stuff, most of it successful” from his time as finance secretary.
The Greens have backed every SNP Budget since 2016 but the LibDems have also voted for them.
The SNP have 62 MSPs leaving them three short of a majority, which means they cannot simply rely on the support of Alba MSP Ash Regan to push a budget through nor the sole backing of John Mason, who had the whip suspended last month.
Swinney blamed the previous UK government for his inability to introduce universal free school meals at primary school at this time, stressing the “Budget has been eroded by the fiscal mismanagement and sky-high inflation which Douglas Ross was party to creating as part of his support for the UK Government.”
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes has said the Scottish Government remain committed to the policy of universal free school meals, but could not say when it could be enacted.
“We have not ditched the pledge to roll it out,” she told BBC Radio Scotland.
“What we are saying is like so many parts of the Government’s commitment, it is contingent on funding being made available.”
Instead of universal provision, the rollout will only reach P6 and P7 pupils who are in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment.
Lorna Slater, the Scottish Greens co-leader, said they had secured the commitment to free school meals in the Budget deal of 2021, adding at First Minister’s Questions: “The Scottish Greens champion free school meals, because we know getting food to hungry kids is a compassionate and effective way to mitigate the impacts of child poverty. Yet as soon as the Greens are out of the room, the Scottish Government drops the policy.
“Can the First Minister explain how we’re supposed to take seriously his commitment to tackle child poverty?”
Swinney said that the Government had “reluctantly” taken the decision to drop the commitment to universality, adding that ministers sometimes had to “face up to difficult financial choices”.
