Alex Salmond has dropped his strongest hint yet that neither he, nor the SNP, have any plans to cut taxes for people in Scotland.
At First Minister’s Questions today he compared the Scottish Conservative policy of cutting income tax by at least a penny as a £1 billion cut. That was in response to Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson’s calls to improve the way the Scottish Government spends public money following criticism by Audit Scotland on reoffending rates.
Earlier this week, the Conservatives said they would look at ways of spending public cash more wisely in order to ensure higher take-home pay for hard-working Scots but it is now clear that the Scottish Government only intends to move taxes in an upward direction.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson MSP said:
“It is obvious from his ill-informed remarks today that Alex Salmond has no intention of ever cutting taxes for hard-working Scots. He refuses to acknowledge failures and inefficiencies – but expects those who get up every morning to go to work to foot the bill without question.
Tax cuts do not take money from people, they put it back in their purses and pockets so they can decide how best it should be spent. Whatever tax cuts we propose when the power is returned to the Scottish Parliament, we will be returning money to Scots from the government, not from Scotland.
Alex Salmond has demonstrated clearly that he regards taxes as a government entitlement, not the rightful earnings of hard-working people. And he obviously believes that the people of Scotland should work for the government while we believe the government should work for us.
We want greater take-home pay for Scots: just now hard-working people must look at their payslip every month and baulk when they see the bottom line compared to the top. Instead, he sees every penny in Scottish workers’ pockets as a penny that should be sitting in his own popularity warchest.
After being criticised by Audit Scotland for the way the SNP government spends almost £130 million on reoffending while making zero impact on figures, you would think Alex Salmond would be more open to advice.”
