THE SNP are “mimicking” the Labour government in claiming that cuts are essential when there are in fact political choices that could avoid them, an influential Green MSP has said.
Ross Greer, who was seen as a linchpin of the governing Bute House Agreement between the Scottish Greens and the SNP, said it “shouldn’t really surprise anybody” that the government led by John Swinney has been moving further to the right since that deal ended.
“We were the left-wing counterweight,” he said. “My frustration is that the SNP are already adopting the same kind of language that they quite rightly criticise UK Labour for. This idea that ‘there is no choice [but to make cuts]’, ‘they are in a really difficult position’.”
This week, the SNP government has faced criticism for cutting free bus travel for asylum seekers and bringing back peak-time rail fares, both of which were Green policies pushed for amid the Bute House Agreement.
The Scottish Government said the asylum seeker policy – for which £2 million had been earmarked in the budget – was "unaffordable" amid economic pressures.
A total of £40m had been set aside to mitigate the loss of income from scrapping peak rail fares during the pilot scheme, but Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said it did not raise passenger numbers by enough to be self-financing and could “not continue in the current financial climate”.
However, Greer insisted that there were ways to raise funds which would have avoided these cuts, and questioned why the SNP were not making those choices.
“The Scottish Government is in a nightmarishly difficult position. The budget doesn't balance, but it legally has to balance, and that's primarily the fault of the UK Government for failing to fund Scotland properly,” he said. “But the choice available to the Scottish Government is how it then balances the books.
“You could cut free bus travel for asylum seekers, or you could cut the £5m a year in tax breaks that are given to shooting estates through the Small Business Bonus Scheme [SBBS]. These are all choices.”
He added: “The SBBS is the most obvious example of an alternative choice that can be made because it's more than £300m a year of tax breaks that go to businesses, many of whom are not small businesses.”
The SBBS offers firms up to 100% non-domestic rates relief if the combined rateable value of all premises is £35,000 or less; the rateable values of individual premises are £20,000 or less; and the premises are actively occupied.
The Green MSP pointed to research into the scheme commissioned by the Scottish Government and conducted by the respected Fraser of Allander in 2020. It found that the SBBS had cost £279m that year, and there was “no empirical evidence” that it was “supporting enhanced business outcomes”.
The Fraser of Allander experts further said that “rateable value is a poor measure by which to classify businesses as ‘small’, and therefore in need of support” – and raised concerns that “businesses with large turnovers but operating from low rateable value properties are eligible”.
Greer said the SBBS meant “hundreds of millions of pounds of tax breaks not just going to small businesses, but often going to big businesses or shooting estates”.
“I am sure that the Scottish Government would kill for an additional £300m right now, and there is £300m sitting there in front of them,” he went on.
“The most effective way to make the case for independence is to use every lever available to the Scottish Government and Parliament to make this country fairer and greener.
“We know that once all those available levers are pulled, this will still not be a fair enough and green enough country because devolution is so restrictive.
“The point is, do everything you possibly can, it won't be enough. You can then turn around to the public and say the only way for us to achieve the kind of society that most people in Scotland want is with the full powers of a normal, independent nation.
“The alternative option that the SNP appear to be pursuing now is mimicking some of the worst aspects of Westminster – and I'm not saying it's a deliberate choice to mimic them – but they are making the same political decisions, ie this narrative that there's no alternative.
“It's more dishonest when a UK Labour government says it because they obviously have far more powers available to them to make alternative choices. But the Scottish Government, the SNP, do have choices to make.”
Greer said that as the SNP cut policies which had been introduced under the Bute House Agreement, it presented “a massive opportunity at the next [Holyrood] election”.
“Even just a couple of months since the Greens left the government, [we’re seeing] this constant drip feed of policy decisions, conscious choices that are well to the right of where the Scottish Government was right up until April, when the Bute House Agreement ended,” he said.
“You have a huge number of progressive voters, left-wing voters, pro-independence voters who are feeling really demoralised and disillusioned with the SNP.
“The contrast of the last three years and then the last three months shows quite clearly what happens when you have Greens in positions of power versus what happens when you have a government that has moved to the right.”
The Scottish Government was approached for comment.
