Scotland\u2019s Finance Secretary has requested an urgent meeting with the Chancellor amid reports she will raise taxes in her Budget this month.<\/p>\n
Shona Robison set out what she said were three tests Rachel Reeves must meet when she delivers her tax and spending plans on November 26.<\/p>\n
They include ditching her fiscal rules and delivering investment \u201cto grow the economy and support people with the cost of living\u201d, ensuring \u201cevery penny\u201d raised from any tax rises is reinvested in public services with consequential funding to Scotland and a promise the Budget will not amount to austerity and cuts for Holyrood.<\/p>\n
It comes after a pre-Budget speech from the Chancellor in which she failed to rule out tax rises, warning she will have to make \u201cnecessary choices\u201d after the \u201cworld has thrown more challenges our way\u201d.<\/p>\n
Chancellor Rachel Reeves left the door open for tax rises during her pre-Budget speech (Justin Tallis\/PA) <\/p>\n
Reports later suggested the Chancellor could raise income tax. The Fraser of Allander Institute has estimated a 2p hike could cut Scotland\u2019s budget by \u00a31 billion.<\/p>\n
The Finance Secretary said: \u201cThe Chancellor\u2019s unexpected Downing Street speech has fuelled speculation and piled uncertainty on uncertainty about Labour tax hikes in the upcoming UK Budget, with a potential price tag of \u00a31 billion for Scotland.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me be clear: Scotland should not be left paying the price for Labour\u2019s broken promises.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Robison said last year\u2019s Budget was a \u201cdisaster\u201d for the Chancellor, \u201ctaxing jobs, (the) vulnerable and doing nothing on child poverty\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said she had requested an urgent meeting with her, where she would set out her three tests.<\/p>\n
She said:\u00a0\u201cThis year, I am setting three tests the UK Budget must meet \u2013 and the first is that the Chancellor must ditch her outdated, restrictive fiscal rules.\u00a0 The era in which these rules were set is over and Rachel Reeves must face up to the new reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd crucially, every single penny raised from any Labour tax rises must be invested into public services with consequential funding for Scotland.<\/p>\n
\u201cRachel Reeves must also confirm that Scotland will not see our funding cut as a result of Labour decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came to office promising an end to austerity, so to impose it on Scotland would be a political betrayal from which Labour would never recover.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have requested an urgent meeting with the Chancellor and will be clear to her that her Budget must meet these three key tests.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the chaos and confusion coming out of the UK Government this week is just confirmation that Scotland shouldn\u2019t be leaving crucial decisions about our finances in the hands of incompetent Westminster governments \u2013 these decisions should be in Scotland\u2019s hands, with the fresh start of independence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland\u2019s Finance Secretary has requested an urgent meeting with the Chancellor amid reports she will raise taxes in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,178205,12186,4884,1144,178206,619,712,178204,90198,16,178203,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-558288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-finance-secretary","12":"tag-fiscal-rules","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-pre-budget-speech","16":"tag-rachel-reeves","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-shona-robison","19":"tag-the-chancellor","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-uk-budget","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115516893035023559","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}