A million Scottish workers will pay price for SNP’s broken promises

OVER the past few years, Nicola Sturgeon’s position on tax has been a model of clarity. For her, it has always been a matter of right and wrong.

In early 2016, not long before the Holyrood election, she declared: ‘I have been very clear that the Government will not increase income tax rates.’

Then, a year later, a few weeks before the General Election, she added: ‘When inflation is rising and living standards are under a lot of pressure, it is not right to increase income tax for those who are on the basic rate.’

The message was clear to people, especially those earning low to middle incomes. You could do your duty, go to the ballot box and vote SNP safe in the knowledge that Nicola Sturgeon wouldn’t be putting up your taxes.

Yesterday, in a breathtaking U-turn, the First Minister sent out her Finance Secretary, Derek Mackay, to break that promise. Smoke and mirrors were deployed to try to mask the true scale of what was proposed. But let me be clear – and let me set out right from wrong.

Mr Mackay’s Nat Tax yesterday represents the biggest broken promise from any government of the entire devolution era, and the most screeching political change of gears since the Liberal Democrats wrecked their reputation for a lifetime by supporting tuition fees.

More than a million Scots will end up paying more in income tax than if they were living in the rest of the UK – nearly half the entire working population. And that doesn’t just include the rich and the well-off: it will take in nurses, primary school teachers and paramedics. In fact, anyone who – in the SNP’s Scotland – has the temerity to earn more than £26,000 a year will now shell out more in tax than they would if they worked south of the Border.

The political leader who promised us that the SNP’s demand for an independence referendum would be ‘once in a generation’ has done it again – ditching a key commitment at the drop of a hat.

For those who have followed the SNP closely this past year, the irony of its decision to tear up its manifesto yesterday will not be lost on anyone. The SNP has held aloft that same manifesto over recent months to insist that it gives the party a clear mandate to hold another unwanted referendum on independence.

A holy writ when it comes to separating our country, now exposed as chip wrapping when it comes to protecting people’s pay packets.

People across Scotland – job creators, business people, workers – have had their patience tested by the SNP’s failed agenda over the past ten years.

I believe yesterday’s betrayal will be the moment that their patience snaps completely.

Once a party that liked to boast it could ‘stand up for Scotland’, the SNP is now exposed as the party that thinks it can fool Scots in return for their votes. That will be the political fall-out of yesterday’s dismal budget.

Pockets

Far more important, however, is the economic cost.

An extra £164million in tax is to be taken out of the pockets of workers across Scotland as a result of decisions made yesterday.

And that will have a real world impact.

It will be felt on the high street, with retailers warning that higher taxes means less money to spend in shops. The SNP’s tax grab could pull down the shutters of stores across the country.

It will be felt by families who need a few extra pounds to afford a summer break, or an extension on the house, or to support ageing parents.

And it will be felt by employers – including in the NHS – who are desperately trying to attract high-value staff to Scotland but must now explain why you have to pay more in tax to live and work in Scotland than in other parts of the UK.

And here’s the real idiocy about the tax plans announced yesterday. Of course, these extra taxes will help fill the black hole in the SNP’s budget in the short term. But that’s the point: it’s just a quick fix.

As the scrupulously impartial Fraser of Allander Institute at Strathclyde University has said: ‘One-year sticking plasters in the form of tax rises can only help for so long.’

Indeed, these tax rises could create even greater problems.

Damaging the economy with higher taxes means slower growth and ultimately, less money through tax receipts coming in to the Scottish Government. So tax rises, in the end, become self-defeating.

So what should the SNP have done yesterday? Again, the Fraser of Allander Institute was clear: ‘A strategy for managing demand, prioritising where money is spent and growing the economy is now needed more than ever.’

On all counts, this is a government which, over ten years in office, has simply failed to do so. It has wasted public funds: from an £180million farm payments system that doesn’t work, to IT projects wildly over budget.

Prioritising spending? This is a government that is continuing to spend millions on a Named Person scheme that parents don’t want, and measures policy initiatives by the number of photo ops they secure, not the benefit to working families.

And a plan to grow the economy? There have been plenty of strategies, frameworks and programmes, but no vision. Why? Fundamentally, because the SNP’s first priority isn’t the health of the economy, it’s the pursuit of independence – the only thing that really matters to them. That’s why Scotland’s growth is lower than that of the rest of the UK – and why yesterday’s forecasts show it will continue to be lower in the years ahead.

We desperately need a change. The SNP Government needs to unshackle the economy by reversing its tax rises. That would send a clear message that the country is open for business.

And we need a government that stops the endless complaints and seizes the huge opportunities that lie ahead for our country.

Scotland is home to some of the great new industries that will power the UK economy over the coming decades.

Business

From laser technology, to video gaming, to life sciences, we have sectors that are on the cusp of something big, backed by leaders across academia and business who want to make Scotland a success story. A government’s job is to help them do that – not get in the way.

You will, I am afraid, find precious little acknowledgement of that on the SNP, Labour, Lib Dem and Green benches at Holyrood, where the only question is how much taxes should rise.

So it is hard not to conclude that this current Government has simply been in power for too long. It no longer has a record on which it is proud to stand. The team is looking threadbare. It is reduced, all too often, to crying foul or complaining about Westminster rather than choosing an ambitious, positive way forward for the country.

And hanging over it all is a question this week that, as of yesterday, will follow it for the remainder of its time in office.

Scots now are going to pay more tax – but what are they getting in return? Better literacy standards in school? A fast-growing economy? Shorter waiting times in hospitals? I fear we will wait in vain. Pay more – get less. As it prepares to break its promise to the people of Scotland on tax, that is the SNP’s new offer.

And nobody is going to buy that.