Mackay told: Put £1bn into services

DEREK MACKAY has been urged to pass on a “massive increase” in UK Government funding by pumping more than £1 billion into Scotland’s public services.

The Finance Secretary will present his Budget to Holyrood on Wednesday, outlining his tax and spending plans for the next financial year.

The Scottish Conservatives said Chancellor Philip Hammond had handed Scotland the third highest cash boost out of all the UK’S spending areas in his UK Budget in October.

Official figures show the Scottish Government will receive an extra £1.6bn in the next financial year, third only to the UK departments of transport and health.

Scottish shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said this proved there is no need to raise taxes in this week’s Scottish Budget.

He said: “These figures prove the Scottish Government will benefit enormously from the UK Budget.

“While the SNP can’t bring themselves to welcome it, this is a huge investment in Scotland.

“This shows the SNP Government has enough cash to support our ailing public services without asking taxpayers for more.

“The SNP has become a ‘pay more, get less’ government. With the Budget this week, that must end.”

As the SNP does not have a majority, Mr Mackay will need to secure the support of at least one other party to push his plans through.

This is most likely to be the Scottish Greens. The Liberal Democrats have already pulled out of talks after the SNP refused to take another independence referendum off the table.

The Tories want the SNP to rule out new tax rises in 2019/20, arguing higher earners already pay more than their counterparts down south.

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour has put forward a series of “anti-austerity” proposals. These include using Scotland’s powers to end the two-child cap for Universal Credit and the associated “rape clause”; increasing child benefit by £5 a week; halting any further cuts to councils; and freezing rail fares.

The party’s finance spokesman James Kelly said: “Labour is putting forward a radical plan to use Scotland’s powers to lift children out of poverty and help thousands of families with the cost of living.

“It would simply be morally wrong to leave children languishing in poverty while Scotland’s significant powers over welfare gather dust on the SNP Government’s shelf.

“Experts, faith leaders and charities have backed Labour’s call to use Scotland’s powers to lift people out of poverty, and it is time for Derek Mackay to listen. The time for tinkering at the edges is over. We need a real change of direction in this Budget – and Labour has the ideas for how we can do things differently.”

A spokesman for Mr Mackay said the Tories had “short-changed Scotland on promised spending for the NHS, and since 2010 have cut Scotland’s budget by around £2bn”.

He said: “Brexit remains the biggest threat to Scotland’s prosperity and public spending. In every area of the country there will be businesses, organisations, communities, people and families who will suffer if we leave the single market and customs union, which is eight times larger than the UK market alone. That is why staying in the EU is in Scotland’s best interests.”

He added: “We were promised strong and stable but what we have is a Government in crisis.

“That’s why a majority of Scots would back independence over both a no-deal Brexit and the bad deal scenario negotiated by the Prime Minister.”