Tax cut favours wealthy over those in need

Earlier in the month, I welcomed students and staff from the University of Stirling’s‘winning Students’ programme to Parliament, for my members’debate on the launch of its successor programme,‘winning Students 100’.

It was fantastic to have the opportunity to highlight these programmes which support students to balance the demands of competitive sport with the challenges of their studies - my full speech is available on my Facebook and Youtube pages.

I was struck however by the fact a hardship fund was included in the programme, and though this in itself is a good thing, it speaks to one of the greatest problems in 21st Century Scotland - that someone driven enough to be both a university student and an internationally accomplished athlete can face the financial destitution that would require that hardship fund.

We need real change with independence – not just a new face at the head of an old system in the UK.

Never has this been more apparent than it was with the recent UK budget - ordinary working people are struggling and need support now more than ever.

Compare that to the choices of the UK Government – to give a tax cut to all by reducing National Insurance, yes, but a tax cut that disproportionately favours the wealthiest over those who need it the most.

According to the new economics foundation, the richest 20 per cent will benefit 12 times more than the poorest 20 per cent from this cut to National Insurance - you can only conclude that this tax cut for the wealthiest in our society was a last-minute cynical appeal by the Tories for electoral gain – rather than doing what’s right for the country.

Compare that to the situation in Scotland, where the poorest 51 per cent of Scots pay less income tax than they would in the rest of the UK, while all Scots on average pay less Council Tax – around £600 less in a Band D property – than in England, with plans for this to continue with the Council Tax freeze this year.

In other words, we are providing a tax cut to those who need it the most, while asking those who earn above the average income to pay a little more.

We are re-distributing that wealth to those who need it most through things like the £25 a week Scottish child payment.

Meanwhile, the Labour party’s plan for the economy is to scrap the cap on bankers’bonuses – all while staying silent on the closure of Grangemouth refinery – which would leave Scotland - which generates 97 per cent of the UK’S £25 billion-a-year oil industry with zero per cent of its refining capacity – and this will cost jobs in our area.

At the upcoming election, UK voters are facing a choice of which political party they dislike the least.

A Conservative party which doesn’t want to conserve anything, and a Labour party which puts bankers before workers.

But Scotland has a different choice.

If you believe in a Scottish parliament that doesn’t just mitigate against poverty, but has the powers to eradicate poverty for good; if you believe employment law, the power to protect working rights and trade unions, should be shaped in Scotland, and if you believe that our economy, our society, our future would be better back home in the European Union, then the SNP is the only party offering real change and a wealthier, fairer future with independence.

Working people are struggling and need support more than ever