Scottish Conservative and Unionist
Party news release
Tax plans outlined by the SNP and
Labour today have confirmed the Scottish Conservatives will be the only party
going into this year’s election on the side of taxpayers, leader Ruth Davidson
has said.
Nicola Sturgeon admitted the
nationalists will not pass on tax cuts announced by the UK Government in last
week’s budget, meaning people in Scotland will pay more income tax than
anywhere else in Britain. Labour stated it wanted to go even
further, scrapping council tax and revaluing properties.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson
said: "Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed today that
she wants to make Scotland the highest taxed part of the United Kingdom. In the last five years alone, 140,000
Scots have been dragged into paying the higher rate of income tax, including
public sector servants such as nurses, teachers and policemen and women. Nicola Sturgeon could have chosen to
support them today but instead she has decided not to. That is bad for the
Scottish economy and bad for Scottish jobs. At least the SNP has seen
fit to acknowledge that raising the additional rate of tax would cost Scotland
millions of pounds, exactly as we have been warning."
On Labour's Council tax plans, she added: "At the same time, we see Labour today
confirming they want to tax Scotland back to the 1970s with a new property tax.
This only confirms Scottish Labour has become the enemy of aspiration.
"Scots now face a tax double whammy from
the SNP and Labour. Going into this election, we
have a government promising to put up taxes and a main opposition party saying
taxpayers should be hammered even harder. Only we are standing up for
Scotland's workers and saying on a point of principle you should not have to
pay more in Scotland than you do in the rest of the UK. I need more MSPs in parliament
to stand up for Scots' wage packets.”
Ruth also confirmed the party's policy on
council tax: “We support the recommendations of our Tax Commission in
January which backed a reformed council tax with a three per cent cap on
increases from next year to protect households.”
