STURGEON HAS SHORT-CHANGED US
First Minister just ‘trying to manufacture grievance’ in Budget attack
NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of trying to ‘manufacture grievance’ after attacking a Budget deal handing her an extra £4.6billion a year.
She claimed the record £40.6billion block grant being given to the Scottish Government by the Treasury amounts to a cut compared to this year and will create a ‘considerable challenge’.
But the First Minister was heavily criticised for also including in her calculations the extra windfall already received by the Scottish Government to help it deal with the coronavirus pandemic and the impact of lockdown.
She was accused of trying to create division rather than welcoming the biggest block grant handed to Scotland since devolution.
It comes as a respected independent thinktank said Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget deal could help boost spending in every area other than health.
A UK Government source said: ‘Only the SNP could turn £4.6billion extra per year into a grievance.’
Scottish Conservative Covid recovery spokesman Murdo Fraser said: ‘This is typical of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP – trying to manufacture a grievance when there isn’t one.
‘Rishi Sunak has delivered the biggest block grant since devolution.
‘Thanks to Rishi Sunak, the Scottish Government’s budget will increase by £4.6billion next year, yet the SNP say he is shortchanging Scotland.
‘The only thing short-changing Scotland is the SNP’s continued attempts to create division, rather than welcoming record funding to support vital jobs and public services across Scotland.’
The Chancellor has said the funding deal is equivalent to an average of an extra £4.6billion a year over the three years covered by the spending review.
The Budget documents show that total funding handed to the Scottish Government in 2022-23 will be £40.6billion.
It is also estimated that the average annual real-terms increase in funding for the Holyrood administration will be 2.4 per cent between 202122 and 2024-25. When asked about the Budget deal for Scotland yesterday, Miss Sturgeon included additional Covidrelated consequentials handed to the Scottish
Government this year to suggest funding is being cut. At First Minister’s Questions, she said: ‘There are aspects of the UK Budget, of course, that we welcome. There is also much to be disappointed in the UK Government.
‘It does not do nearly enough to address the cost of living crisis that many individuals and families across the country are facing and it will leave the Scottish Government with less resources in every year of the spending review than we have at our disposal in this year. The result of that is a considerable challenge for the Scottish Government but, of course, we will set out our own budget plans shortly.’
She also refused to say if she would follow the Chancellor and freeze the business rates poundage and hand firms in the hard-hit retail, hospitality and leisure sectors a 50 per cent reduction next year.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘We already had extended 100 per cent rates relief and the Chancellor didn’t do it for other parts of the UK. There was 100 per cent rates relief already in place in this financial year.
‘We will bring forward our Budget in due course for scrutiny by this parliament, and I give a guarantee that it will be fair to the retail sector, as we have been in a way the UK Government over recent months has not.’
She also condemned the decision to cut air passenger duty for domestic flights, saying it was ‘the
wrong choice ahead of Cop26 starting’. Miss Sturgeon made no direct reference to the Levelling Up Fund, which will see the UK Government spend £172million directly on eight projects in Scotland, including roads, infrastructure and regeneration schemes.
Asked about the fund later, the First Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘We are in a situation where we have had EU funding taken away and, whichever way you cut it, the way it has been badged as a replacement doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny in terms of the like-for-like replacement.’
Pressed on whether the SNP Government opposes the investments to be made as part of the fund, he said: ‘We are never going to oppose investment and funding coming to Scotland.
‘But we do have concerns that what is being proposed doesn’t match what is being taken away.’
A report published by the Fraser of Allander Institute on the impact of the Budget in Scotland said that the announcements ‘improve the outlook for the resource block grant in each of the next three years, relative to what had been pencilled in previously’. David Eiser, of the Fraser of Allander Institute, said: ‘The spending trade-offs facing [SNP Finance Secretary] Kate Forbes as she begins to plan the 22-23 Scottish budget, due December 9, look less acute now than they did before today.
‘Good news for portfolios outside of health, who are likely to be main beneficiaries.’
Asked on BBC Good Morning Scotland about SNP claims that the Scottish Government’s budget is being cut, Mr Sunak said: ‘I don’t accept that’s right, actually and yesterday’s Budget outlined two things… one is the largest annual block grant in real terms of any spending review since the devolution settlements of 1998.
‘But also Barnett consequentials of around £4.5billion a year on average over the next three years.
‘So I think no matter how you cut it there is very significant direct fiscal support going to the Scottish people, via the Scottish Government, as a result of the decisions that we took.’