SNP reject Malcolm Offord's call for Scottish Government to slash taxes below UK level

Malcolm Offord urged the Scottish Government to use its powers to cut income tax as an "innovative" way to grow the Scottish economy. 

Speaking on a trip to Iceland last week, the Scotland Office minister said people are currently disincentivised to move to Scotland.

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He told The Scotsman, which published the article on Wednesday: “Under the devolution settlement there is leeway on income tax of 3p in either direction against the UK tax rate.

“A business enterprise agenda that saw that tax being cut, perhaps even becoming lower than the UK, would be very innovative.”

The Scotland Minister made his comments before the UK Government U-turned on it tax plans (Image: PA)

He went on: “It’s not right that Scottish people should be taxed more in Scotland just for living in Scotland."

Offord said there should be an incentive for Scots to keep more of their own money.

He continued: “I feel strongly that we should be having a real growth agenda and enterprise agenda in Scotland to increase the private sector because the more the private sector grows, the more tax we take into the Treasury, the more we can invest in public services.”

Backing Liz Truss's recently ditched tax cuts, he said the UK had to go for more growth, adding that the way to get there is through tax cuts.

The SNP rejected those calls, accusing the Tories of prioritising the rich with their tax policies.

SNP MP Alison Thewliss said the Tories had prioritised the rich at the expense of the poor

The party’s Treasury spokesperson, Alison Thewliss, told The National: "Scotland already has the fairest and most progressive tax system in the UK.

“The SNP Scottish Government won't be taking fiscal advice from an unelected Tory Lord whose own party in government took a sledgehammer to the economy and tanked the pound.

“When it comes to taxes they will always prioritise the rich at the expense of low and middle-income households."

A spokesperson for John Swinney said: “Probably the last people on the planet we will take advice from on an effective tax policy are the Tory Government.”

A Scottish Greens spokesperson labelled Tory economic policies a "disaster".

They told The National: "We will not be taking financial advice from Lord Offord, who is part of a government that has crashed our economy, driving up prices for food and other vital goods and forcing up interest rates for millions of people.

"We have seen the Tory Party's economic experiments being played out in real time and the results have been catastrophic.

Liz Truss's government made a series of U-turns on its pledges to cut taxes (Image: PA)

"Lord Offord has never been elected to anything. There is no democratic basis for him to even be a Minister. 

"One of the many benefits of Scottish independence is that we will have control of all the economic levers and will no longer be at the mercy of unelected Lords or a cruel and incompetent Tory government that has managed to do years worth of damage in only 6 weeks."

Just days after Offord's comments, the Prime Minister's newly-appointed Chancellor made sweeping U-turns on his predecessor's mini-budget.

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Jeremy Hunt reversed several key Truss policies including a planned decrease in corporation tax and an abolition of the top rate of income tax. 

Offord's appointment to the Scotland Office was followed by accusations of "rampant cronyism".

Offord, a party donor, was given a peerage after failing to win a seat at the Scottish Parliament election.

The businessman worked in the City of London for 25 years before moving to Scotland to set up the private equity firm Badenoch & Co.

The Scottish Government has been approached for comment. The Scotland Office has also been contacted for comment.