‘We’re all better off’? Nonsense

AS underwhelming Tory Budgets go, this one wins a gold medal.

As Keir Starmer said in the Commons chamber, it was the last desperate act of a party out of ideas and out of time.

Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt seemed to be more interested in protecting his job as a constituency MP than anything that could be done to boost the economy.

He stood up at the despatch box, in the middle of his and Rishi’s recession, and told the country you’ve never had it so good.

Listening, you’d think they had taken inspiration from the Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow.

Everything is great, we’re all better off. Of course, that’s total nonsense. You don’t need a statistic to tell you that.

But just to be clear – even after this budget, the tax you pay will still be at its highest level since just after World War II.

And in Scotland, we’re paying even more tax and getting much less because the SNP government has managed to surpass the Tories, who have themselves raised taxes more than any Parliament in history.

After a vote in recent weeks by SNP MSPs, anyone in Scotland earning more than £29,000 per year is paying more tax than anywhere else in the UK. At the same time as they have made working people pay higher taxes, the SNP are in the truly extraordinary position of arguing that oil and gas companies should pay lower taxes.

In the Budget, the Tories relented to accept Labour’s plan for an extended windfall tax on oil and gas giants, who are earning record profits.

That leaves the SNP as the sole defender of multinational energy giant profits – to the right of even the Tories.

Your SNP MP thinks nurses should pay higher taxes, but BP and Shell should be paying less.

There is nothing progressive about that. The people of Scotland are being let down.

We have a tired government in Westminster and SNP MPs who are stronger for oil and gas executives, but weaker for Scotland.

The truth is it’s time for the Prime Minister to put us all out of this Tory economic misery.

It’s time for a general election and it’s time for a Labour government that will deliver for the people of Scotland.

Snp’s oil & gas tax perks are to right of the tories Ian murray slams scottish government