THE First Minister’s plea to opposition party leaders urging them to unite against “unacceptable” cuts to Scotland’s budget for this year appears to have largely fallen on deaf ears when her office said last night no responses had been received to her letter sent on Friday.
Nicola Sturgeon wrote to Holyrood’s four fellow party leaders urging them to join forces to oppose the spending reductions announced by the UK Government on Thursday.
She accused Chancellor George Osborne of disrespecting the Scottish Parliament in the letter to deputy Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie and Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie.
But last night none of the politicians had written back, though Harvie released a statement on Friday saying that he supported First Minister’s call. A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “We’ve had no responses.”
The news emerged as Deputy First Minister John Swinney said cuts to Scotland’s budget for this year are “too bitter a pill to swallow” despite being confirmed as substantially lower than originally estimated.
Swinney told Osborne that a £107m cut for 2015-16 was “completely unacceptable” when the pair met in London yesterday.
The Treasury has confirmed that the overall reduction to Scotland’s budget is £70m less than the £176.8m provisionally estimated. The cut is the consequence of £3bn of savings being made to UK departmental budgets.
Swinney said: “In the face of strong opposition and no mandate for austerity in Scotland, the Chancellor plans to plough ahead and slash the Scottish budget this year.
“The cut of £107m is substantially lower than the UK Government’s original estimate, but this still is too bitter a pill to swallow. This comes on top of an overall budget cut of 9 per cent since 2010, including a 25 per cent cut to the capital budget.
“I made it clear today that it is completely unacceptable for reductions to be imposed in this financial year to the budget that has already been agreed by the Scottish Parliament.
“I also set out that we will continue to argue for an end to austerity and a credible economic alternative that could see an additional £93bn investment across the UK in the next four years that still meets UK fiscal targets.”
He added: “The Chancellor’s decision leaves Scotland £107m poorer, but the Scottish Government will do everything possible to mitigate the impact and we’ll continue to focus on our priorities of growing the economy, protecting public services and tackling inequality.”
The Treasury said the Scottish Government will have the option of deferring the impact of their £107m budget reduction until 2016-17.
A Treasury spokeswoman said: “Following the completion of the in-year Whitehall budget review process, the automatic calculation of the Barnett Formula impact on the budgets of the devolved administrations has now been finalised and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has written to the Scottish Finance Minister to this effect.”
Last week the First Minister called for opposition parties to unite against “unacceptable” cuts to Scotland’s budget for this year, arguing they would have “a potentially damaging impact” on public services.
She reiterated the Scottish Government’s call for an alternative approach of “moderate” increases in public spending of 0.5 per cent a year in real terms between 2016-17 and 2019-20.
Kezia Dugdale has not responded to the First Minister’s letter, although Ian Murray, Shadow Scottish Secretary, released a statement condemning the cut on Thursday.
The Greens and the Scottish Conservatives have also not written back, though Harvie said on Friday that the Greens would “of course work with others to oppose the UK Government cuts”.
Ruth Davidson has also not replied, though John Lamont, the Scottish Tories’ chief whip, insisted that Scotland had received an extra £2.7bn since 2010.
He also challenged the First Minister to use new tax-raising powers coming to the Scottish Parliament.
And a Scottish LibDem spokesman said: “Willie Rennie was clear during the election that the SNP’s plan to borrow £180bn would dump debt on future generations and could derail the economic progress made by the coalition government. His view remains the same.”
Swinney and the Chancellor also discussed the fiscal framework for the Scotland Bill, which will give Scotland substantial new tax and spending powers.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands said: “This is a crucial part of devolution which will mean, for the first time, over half of the Scottish Parliament’s funding will come from Scottish tax, making it one of the most powerful devolved legislatures in the world.
“If the Scottish Government want to increase spending they can increase Scottish taxes, without increasing UK borrowing overall.”
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