£80bn cost of failure to hit targets for growth
‘Less for schools and hospitals’
SCOTLAND’S economy missed out on an £80billion boost as the SNP failed to meet its own fiscal targets.
The Scottish Government had pledged to grow the economy in several key areas – but research shows it failed in five of these.
They include matching UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, growing GDP to match small EU nations and increasing exports.
The Scottish Conservatives claim this cost the economy £80billion. The party’s finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said: ‘It is bad enough that the SNP has missed their own targets, but to have missed them by so much is truly desperate.
‘These figures lay bare the utter failure of the SNP to grow our economy and support Scottish businesses.
‘The SNP’s failure to grow the economy means less money for schools and hospitals.
‘The SNP’s only solution is to raise taxes on hardworking Scots, which will simply make this situation worse.’
The Nationalists’ failure to match GDP growth with the rest of the UK cost the economy £1.5billion, while not matching that of the small independent EU countries by last year cost the country £4billion.
Recent figures also show that the country did not make it into the top OECD quartile for productivity by 2017, costing the economy £47billion, while a target of boosting international exports by 50 per cent by 2017 was also missed.
A spokesman for Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: ‘The Tories have a cheek accusing anyone else of damaging Scotland’s economy. By far the biggest threat to Scotland’s future prosperity is the Tory hard Brexit, which they are forcing on Scotland against its will.
‘Of course, the economy is just one of many areas where the Scottish Government is taking action in the face of poor policy decisions coming from Westminster.’
IT’S less than a week since the Cabinet’s Brexit committee wisely voted to reject Downing Street’s fiendishly complex proposal for a ‘new customs partnership’ with the EU.
Yet Business Secretary Greg Clark spent the weekend scuttling round the liberal media saying the Government plans to press ahead regardless with this intensely bureaucratic and almost certainly unworkable scheme.
Is there a sell-out in the offing? Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson plainly thinks so and warns in today’s Mail how disastrous it would be. He says it would entangle us in a ‘whole new web’ of Brussels red tape, undermine our ability to negotiate new trade deals and betray Theresa May’s pledge to deliver a clean Brexit.
Let’s be clear what this new ‘partnership’ means. British customs and revenue officers would act as tax collectors for Brussels, continuing to charge EU tariffs on imports entering the UK from outside the bloc, then giving rebates to traders whose goods were sold exclusively in Britain.
In theory, it would allow trade to keep flowing freely. In practice, it would be a logistical nightmare and an invitation to fraud, as British officials struggled to track the final destination of every imported widget and foodstuff so the correct tariffs could be charged. The infrastructure and manpower required would take years to put in place, delaying Brexit indefinitely.
This paper has had its differences with Mr Johnson but on this issue he is absolutely right. The customs partnership makes a mockery of taking back control and risks the worst of all options – staying tied to Brussels but unable to influence our own trade policy.
Which is why new Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson joined forces with more steadfast Cabinet Brexiteers to reject this option in favour of a ‘maximum facilitation’ arrangement, using modern technology to achieve frictionless trade.
Mr Clark’s manoeuvres are clearly meant to pressurise them into changing their minds. Labour wreckers, misguided Tory rebels, Europhile civil servants and antiBrexit Lords will use every weapon they have to frustrate the will of the people.
But even if Mrs May did concede to staying in some form of customs union, they would simply demand more and more concessions until the referendum vote was effectively overturned.