They work for you

The Scottish Government’s budget announcment just before Christmas demonstrated that it is the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, led by Ruth Davidson, who are offering a strong opposition to the SNP.

On one of the key issues facing the parliament, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens all lined up alongside the SNP to call for higher taxes on families in Rutherglen and Cambuslang and throughout Scotland.

These political parties form a Holyrood high-tax consensus that will only take Scotland backwards. Nobody can now have any doubt: it is only the Scottish Conservatives who are standing up for workers in Rutherglen and Cambuslang against unfair, unnecessary and disproportionate tax rises.

Our position is straightforward and based on a clear principle: families and businesses in our communities should not have more cash taken out of their pockets and pay packets than families and businesses elsewhere in the UK.

The UK Conservative Government has removed income tax on everyone’s earnings up to £11,000 a year. This means that working people are £850 a year better off than they were in 2010. Families have more money to spend as they see fit because of the tax changes delivered by the Conservatives.

In Scotland, the SNP seem determined to take the tax burden in exactly the opposite direction.

But if they want to hit the budget of hard-working families in Scotland, the nationalists will face robust opposition from us every step of the way.

We will oppose them not just because it is unfair that Scots should pay more in tax than families and businesses south of the border, but also because it will put us at a real disadvantage.

To build an economy that works for everyone, Scotland needs to retain more of our most talented students after they graduate, not offer them a tax incentive to take their talents to England.

Higher taxes will be bad for our economy, bad for jobs, and will reduce the sum available to invest in public services.

The other parties simply don’t get it.

There is still time for the SNP to think again. Making Scotland the highest-taxed part of the United Kingdom will be disastrous for Scotland. The SNP’s budget should be resisted; and that’s exactly what Ruth Davidson’s strong opposition will do.