The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Doubt over Sturgeon spending splurge
• SNP leader promises billions in extra investment while freezing income tax rates and bands
• But neutral researchers at IFS warn the plans are uncosted and will require “tricky trade offs”
• Holyrood manifesto also demands second independence referendum by the end of 2023
Nicola Sturgeon promised to spend billions rebuilding the country from the Covid pandemic – while freezing income tax rates and planning another referendum to leave the UK.
The SNP leader’s aim for government was revealed in her party’s manifesto for the Holyrood election on May 6, which she is on course to win.
But there were questions about how the expensive promises can be met, and a backlash at the upheaval of independence while the economy is in recovery. Analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned there would have to be “tight trade-offs” to balance the books.
Conservatives claimed voters are being offered “brazen pre-election bribes” and claimed independence would lead to deep cuts.
Ms Sturgeon said it was a pioneering package of plans for government.
“As we recover, we have the opportunity to reimagine our country,” she said in a live-streamed address.
“In this manifesto the SNP is setting out a serious programme for serious times. It is practical but unashamedly optimistic and it is transformational in its ambition.”
Key SNP pledges include:
● At least 20% increase in health spending.
● A five-year freeze on income tax rates and bands.
● Scrapping NHS dentistry charges.
● £800 million on social care funding.
● £33 billion for infrastructure.
● Increased childcare provision and social security.
The IFS looked at all the pledges, which come with an estimated price tag of £6bn in resource funds and more than £30bn in capital spending over the next parliament. David Phillips, associate director of the IFS, said: “The SNP’s manifesto continues with a trend of greater universality in public service provision – providing services free to everyone, rather than using means-testing to focus support on those with the lowest incomes.
“The plans set out would also mean substantial gains for certain groups of households: many families with, particularly younger, children; households that would benefit from the exemption of all 18 to 21-year-olds from council tax; and those paying for home care, for example.
“Paying for these pledges in what could be a tight funding environment over the next few years will require tricky trade-offs though: tax rises or spending cuts in at least some other areas. The tougher fiscal situation an independent Scotland would face in at least its first few years would make the challenge of delivering these commitments even harder.”
Conservative economy spokesman Maurice Golden said: “These respected independent analysts have immediately picked giant holes in the SNP manifesto and exposed Nicola Sturgeon’s pledges as brazen pre-election bribes.
“We know that if implemented, many of these headline-grabbing spending announcements would only be possible due to additional funding from the UK Government.
“The irony is that if the SNP got their way in ripping Scotland out of the UK, taxes would rocket, and public spending would suffer deep cuts.
“Voters are smart enough to know that none of this is ‘free’ and must ultimately be paid for through taxation. SNP smoke and mirrors cannot change the basic rules of economics.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, campaigning yesterday with UK party leader Keir Starmer, said: “As we emerge from the collective trauma of Covid, Scotland can’t afford for the scandal-hit Government’s failures – sky-high child poverty rates, fewer teachers, fewer police officers and millions wasted on mismanaged projects – to continue. Scotland deserves better.”
Ms Sturgeon hit back at her opponents, branding them “infantile” for claiming the SNP had fallen short with previous promises in government.
Referring to the opposition, she said: “It really is facile and infantile – we don’t have any government anywhere in the world that does everything it could ever possibly want to do or imagine doing on day one. Life is about progress, government is about progress.”
On independence, she said any vote would be “after” the pandemic crisis but within the next parliamentary session.
The first minister’s critics have repeatedly warned against holding another vote on independence while Scotland is still recovering from the pandemic, for fear of distracting government and the public from the task at hand.
Ms Sturgeon also said there would be no basis for rejecting another referendum on the part of the UK Government if a “simple majority” of independence-supporting MSPs are elected next month.