THE Chief Secretary to the Treasury has said he “does not recognise” claims that £1.7 billion had been wiped from the Scottish Government’s finances due to the mini-Budget.
John Glen, Tory MP for Salisbury, was asked by The National at a briefing with Scottish journalists following the Autumn Statement if he had any response to the SNP’s claims that Scotland was being “short-changed”.
The party says that the £1.5bn in Barnett consequentials set to be passed on to the Scottish Government is below the £1.7bn which had been wiped from the country’s budget due to rocketing inflation and the fall out from Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget.
Glen refuted this and instead claimed that the settlement is a “very generous one”, and when asked if he would apologise for the “pain” inflicted on households by the mini-Budget would only offer “regrets”.
The Tory MP was also asked about the real percentage change to the Scottish Government block grant year on year, but couldn’t answer as he didn’t “have all the details yet”
Asked by The National about the £1.7bn wiped off the Scottish Government’s budget due to the mini-budget, Glen said he did not recognise the claims.
He said: “The £1.7bn figure that is cited is, I think, the in-year inflationary pressures for this year, which is very different to what we see in the GDP deflator that we use.
“What I see is a very generous settlement of £1.5bn which will amplify by a significant margin – probably well over 20% more than we see in England.
“How the Scottish Government distribute that and what they choose to do with welfare versus the NHS will be decisions that they can make.”
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced a package of tax rises and spending cuts worth £55bn on Thursday as he was accused of making working people pick up the tab for the chaos caused by his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng.
The ill-fated “Trussonomics” approach taken by the previous Tory administration during its 49 days in power permanently increased borrowing by £30bn, according to the Resolution Foundation.
It also caused the pound to fall to a record low against the US dollar, forced the Bank of England to intervene to stop pension pots from collapsing, and caused mortgage interest rates to skyrocket.
Glen only offered “regret” when asked if his party should apologise for the impact of the decisions made by Truss’s government.
He told reporters: “On the legacy of the previous administration, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor were very clear when they took office that there were mistakes made and I think the Chancellor within three days had reversed many of those judgments.
“And what we also see with the OBR today is that they said if we hadn't taken the steps that we've taken the recession would be deeper and more enduring.”
He added: “I fully accept that we regret those decisions that were made. We're now taking decisions in light of circumstances we find.”
When Glen was asked why he can’t simply apologise after the disastrous decisions of Truss and Kwarteng cost the public purse £30bn, he again said he regrets “very much what was done”.
Glen added that as “new ministers” their job is to minimise the impact of inflation and grow the economy.
The Tory MP for Salisbury served in the Treasury as economic secretary from January 9 2018 to July 6 2022, surviving Boris Johnson’s September 2021 reshuffle to continue in the post. He did not serve in Truss’s government and was then appointed to his current role by Rishi Sunak last month.
He added: “I've used the language that I want to use and that's that.”
It comes as deputy first minister John Swinney expressed dismay at the Chancellor's failure to address the impact of inflation on the Scottish Government’s budget.
The acting Finance Secretary said: “Inflation is eating away at the Scottish budget, and due to the lack of additional funding in 2022-23 and the financial restrictions of devolution, we have had no choice but to make savings of more than £1bn.”
