Swinney threatens cuts to services to fund pay demands

SNP acccused of attempt to shift blame for cash failures

SCOTLAND’S public services face the threat of ‘deep cuts’ to fund bumper pay deals, the Deputy First Minister has warned.

John Swinney yesterday issued a plea to the UK Chancellor to provide more cash for pay deals amid the cost of living crisis.

But the Treasury said that it had already pledged a record funding settlement for the next three years.

Critics accused SNP ministers of trying to shift blame elsewhere and failing to take responsibility for their own decisions.

A series of trade unions representing council workers are planning industrial

‘Cut frontline services to the bone’

action in the coming weeks in protest at the ‘derisory’ pay offer on the table, with schools, bin collections and street cleaning set to be impacted.

Council umbrella group Cosla has offered workers a 2 per cent pay rise but indicated it would increase this to 5 per cent if it got extra funding from the Scottish Government.

Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘This is a brass-necked attempt to blame the UK Treasury for the SNP’s failure to fund public services in Scotland.

‘But the real story is that the Nationalists have created a £3.5billion black hole in their finances according to the IFS [Institute for Fiscal Studies] and have already cut frontline services to the bone.’

She added: ‘Council workers are about to strike because the SNP left local authorities so cashstrapped they can’t improve pay.’

Mr Swinney made a plea for extra cash in a letter to Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and asked for discussions with him.

He said the last UK Government spending review, which determines the majority of the Scottish Budget, did not take into account the impact of rising inflation and the cost of living crisis.

Mr Swinney – who is responsible for finance while Kate Forbes is on maternity leave – said: ‘The associated reduction in spending power across public-sector budgets is deeply worrying for our public services and our capacity to respond to the cost of living crisis.’

The Unite, Unison and GMB unions have all backed industrial action in parts of Scotland in protest at the proposed pay rise.

Eddie Cassidy, of Unite, yesterday said some workers could not afford to buy both bread and milk and some had asked to take holidays at the end of the month because they could not afford bus fares to get to work. ‘That’s unsustainable,’ he told the BBC.

Scottish Labour finance spokesman Daniel Johnson said: ‘It isn’t acceptable for Scotland’s two governments to simply try and blame one another for their collective failures. It is the SNP who have for almost 15 years failed to value public sector workers or prioritise fair pay deals for them, all while the Tories have presided over a massive transfer of wealth to top earners.’

A UK Government spokesman said: ‘We have provided the Scottish Government with a record £41billion per year for the next three years, the highest spending review settlement since devolution.

‘As a result, the Scottish Government is receiving around £126 per person for every £100 per person of equivalent UK Government spending in England.’

‘Could not afford bus fares’