Scotland’s acting finance minister, John Swinney, has announced plans for £500m of spending cuts as public sector pay disputes, provision for displaced Ukrainians and Tuesday’s pledges on cost of living support place “enormous strain” on government finances.
Underlining that Scotland’s budget was “at the absolute limits of affordability” and already worth £1.7bn less than when it was published in December, as a result of inflation, he told MSPs: “Every penny more on one policy is a penny less on another policy.”
