Transparency is vital on spending

Although the media has been focused on the Conservative leadership election, parliament has still been busy working on new legislation, including the monumental commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

This was a radical piece of legislation that will require significant changes to our economy and way of life, but will bring benefits to our constituency for years to come.

For our corner of the United Kingdom, where agriculture is a key pillar of our local economy, this is especially important and will require all levels of government to work together to achieve our multiple climate change goals.

In addition to this, I recently secured a debate on devolved finances.

There is much misunderstanding on this topic, and by securing this debate I sought to make discussion much more transparent.

We discussed the details of devolved finances, including Scotland’s where our public revenue raises about £60 billion, which is about eight per cent of UK GDP, and expenditure stands at just over £73bn, which is about 9.3 per cent of the UK’s spend, so there is a gap of about £13bn between what we raise in Scotland, including the oil and gas revenue, and what we spend.

That gap is bridged by the UK Government, by other tax revenue raised by Westminster from across the United Kingdom.

How we raise taxes and spend our money should be a topic for robust debate, but I believe we owe it to our constituents to make our debates as open and transparent as possible, so politicians can be praised or criticised by their choices, not by process.

Once the shape of the new government comes into focus, I will work to build upon previous wins that my Scottish Conservative and Unionist colleagues and I have secured.

By working constructively with the government, we have guaranteed funding

How we raise taxes and spend our money should be a topic for robust debate

increases and made real changes for constituents such as getting increases to Scotland’s budget every year since 2016-17, the £35m/year VAT exemption for Police Scotland, signing the Tay Cities Deal, while increasing the national minimum wage to its highest level and increasing the tax-free personal allowance to £12,500, putting more money in people’s pockets.

Criticism of government is right in a democracy, but I hope we can recognise where there is progress too.

I also observed that in the Perthshire Advertiser (June 28) that an elected SNP official criticised me for welcoming town regeneration funds and “cherry picking figures”.

I welcomed the funds allocated by a Conservative-led Perth and Kinross Council because they were the authority that confirmed the spending (after a cross-party process to consider and recommend options).

Although the funding was supplied by the devolved administration in Edinburgh, it was enabled by a direct Barnett consequential of £83.7 million from 2018/19 – 2020/21 (capital and resource).

If SNP politicians want to talk figures, perhaps they should take the lessons of the debate I secured and recognise the funding from Westminster too.

As always, if you have any issues or queries please do not hesitate to contact me at my constituency office at 2 Comrie Street, Crieff, by telephone (01764 680 384) or via email at luke. grahamoffice@parliament. uk