MANIFESTO BREACH WILL HIT NEARLY HALF OF WORKERS

NICOLA Sturgeon laughed off suggestions in the Scottish Parliament yesterday that her Government were about to raid the pockets of basic rate taxpayers, including primary teachers, nurses, paramedics and police officers.

Hours later, her Finance Secretary confirmed that 45 per cent of workers in Scotland would now pay more tax than they would if they lived anywhere else in the UK. It means this new Nat Tax will hit nearly half of Scottish workers in the pocket.

That is a tax on aspiration, a punishment for daring to work hard and a direct breach of the promise made by the SNP in their election manifesto. That will not escape the notice of voters, who will never believe a word the Nationalists say again.

The message from this Budget is clear: don’t be ambitious, don’t be hardworking and don’t be successful in the SNP’s Scotland. If you are, the SNP will penalise you for their own failure to grow the economy.

But it’s not just taxation that the SNP have botched – there were grim warnings for the economy as a whole.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission said GDP will increase by less than one per cent for each of the next five years.

These projections are absolutely dismal and much worse than expected.

It’s the SNP’s responsibility to grow the economy, but they are abjectly failing to do so.