Pensioners ‘betrayed’ by Nicola’s indy vision
SNP promises made in 2014 are missing from new report
THE SNP was accused last night of betraying pensioners in its latest blueprint for independence.
The Scottish Tories said the Growth Commision report, Scotland – The Case For Optimism, watered down the party’s commitments made in its 2014 White Paper on the implications of leaving the UK. In 2014, the SNP proposed a lower retirement age of 66 rather than 67 and a triple lock on pensions in a bid to woo the grey vote. But these commitments, along with the 2014 promise that welfare spending would be ‘unchanged’ from UK levels, do not appear in the new report.
‘It is a total betrayal,’ said Scottish Conservative welfare spokeswoman Michelle Ballantyne. ‘Throughout their lives, people have worked hard and expect to retire with dignity. The SNP want people to sacrifice that security to satisfy their obsession with independence. We will fight for the Union to stop Nicola Sturgeon destroying the security of your old age.’
She added: ‘For years the SNP has railed against welfare policies. Now even they admit that, after independence, they wouldn’t be able to afford to top them up.’
The SNP insisted the report focused on economic growth, rather than pensions, and pledged welfare as a whole would be unchanged from UK levels.
But the concerns raised will do nothing to win over older voters who backed the Union in 2014.
The UK Government has maintained its own triple lock, which guarantees an annual increase in the state pension of 2.5 per cent, average wage growth or inflation – whichever is highest.
Nicola Sturgeon commissioned the report by lobbyist and former Nationalist MSP Andrew Wilson in 2016. A weak economic case was widely blamed for the Yes campaign’s defeat in 2014, with Alex Salmond’s own blueprint losing credibility after the UK Government rejected his plan for a currency union. Mr Wilson said an independent Scotland should continue to use the pound – but without UK agreement, or the security of the Bank of England – and consider a separate Scottish currency later. He admitted that an independent Scotland would begin life with a 5.9 per cent budget deficit. Scottish Labour economy spokeswoman Jackie Baillie responded: ‘These startling figures show again that the SNP is willing to wreck Scotland’s economy in its mindless pursuit of independence. ‘Rather than producing pseudoacademic papers outlining how the SNP’s vision would turn Scotland into the sick man of Europe, Nicola Sturgeon should start fixing the mess she has made of our schools and hospitals.’ An SNP spokesman last night rejected criticism and insisted that the Growth Commission report would ‘replace the despair of Brexit with optimism and hope about Scotland’s future’.