LABOUR’S political choices will “fundamentally damage” public services in Scotland, the Finance Secretary has warned.
Speaking after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that his government’s first budget would have to be “painful”, Shona Robison said that he was no longer able to “hide from the reality” that cuts would be needed.
Starmer had used a keynote speech in Downing Street’s Rose Garden on Tuesday to say decisions such as cutting the Winter Fuel Payment for millions of pensioners were a “difficult trade off – and there will be more to come”.
SNP Cabinet Secretary Robison said that “significant” spending cuts would be needed because of the Labour government’s decision to stick to the Tories’ fiscal rules – something which Chancellor Rachel Reeves made a key pillar of her General Election pitch.
Robison said: “The Prime Minister’s speech this morning is a watershed moment in UK politics.
“Before Labour entered office, we and many others repeatedly warned that they were concealing the significant cuts they would have to make as a result of sticking to the Tory fiscal rules – and now, they are no longer able to hide from the reality.
“The political choices being made by the new UK Government will fundamentally damage our ability to deliver public services in Scotland. The SNP government will do everything we can to protect the services and public from the Westminster attack on Scotland’s public spending.
“While clearly the legacy of the Tory government, Labour must accept at least some of the culpability for the mess that the UK is now in. In opposition, they rowed in behind many of the Tory decisions that have damaged the economy and hurt living standards – whether that is Brexit, austerity spending cuts or attacks on the welfare state.
“I and the SNP government will continue to argue for a better alternative – one that rejects Westminster cuts, whether they are Labour or Tory cuts, and instead prioritises investment in people and in public services as the bedrock of a stronger economy.”
Former cabinet secretary Alex Neil said that the SNP government he used to be a part of could not just become the “Scottish Post Office for UK Labour cuts”.
He argued that “imposing an emergency land tax on the big estates would raise enough money to avoid any cuts to essential services”.
“It would also demonstrate to the Scottish people we are committed to fairness and equality,” Neil added.
In April, a report from the think tank Common Weal projected that more than £400 million could be raised every year if land was taxed in the same way as housing.
Reform of the council tax system into separate property and land taxes would also be “substantial enough to significantly narrow or even completely close upcoming projected budget shortfalls”, the paper said.
Speaking to The Sunday National last weekend, Green MSP Ross Greer also argued that hundreds of millions could be raised each year by reform of the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which he said was often used by large companies and shooting estates.
The Prime Minister’s speech came on the same day that Scotland’s independent economic forecaster said the Scottish Government could struggle to balance its budget this year due in part to the uncertainty in the amount of funding coming north of the Border from Westminster.
Pressures were also a result of higher than expected public sector pay deals, the council tax freeze announced by former first minister Humza Yousaf, and reforms to the social security system, according to a report from the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC).
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also held an event on Tuesday at which he pinned the blame for the state of Scotland's finances on the SNP.
Speaking to reporters, Sarwar claimed that people would find Starmer's warnings of a tough winter to be "refreshing".
