{"id":712074,"date":"2026-01-22T02:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/712074\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T02:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:11:16","slug":"hard-working-scots-left-squealing-from-snps-high-taxes-says-sir-tom-hunter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/712074\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard-working Scots left squealing from SNP\u2019s high taxes, says Sir Tom Hunter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scots have been left \u201csquealing\u201d from paying increasingly higher taxes, Sir Tom Hunter has said, as he described the burden on nurses, teachers and policemen as unfair.<\/p>\n

Sir Tom, one of Scotland\u2019s leading businessmen, said he has friends who have left the country because of the SNP\u2019s decision to raise taxes higher than those in the rest of the UK.<\/p>\n

Despite his pleas for a more pro-business Scottish government, the East Ayrshire-born philanthropist said he will not make any donations or endorsements for the Holyrood election in May.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Sir Tom Hunter said he will not endorse a political party ahead of the election in May (Jane Barlow\/PA)<\/p>\n

(Jane Barlow)<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Press Association, he criticised MSPs for not making the most of Scotland\u2019s devolved powers, and he rejected the SNP\u2019s argument that Scotland could not fully flourish without independence.<\/p>\n

Sir Tom said Scotland would be in a \u201cstrong position\u201d to move towards independence if the Scottish Government had \u201cmade a success of the powers they have\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, he made a clarion call to Scotland\u2019s political parties to back economic growth through a series of reforms to the tax, energy and the planning systems.<\/p>\n

In his Entrepreneurs Manifesto for Scotland, he claimed 100,000 jobs could be created and \u00a320.2 billion added to the economy by stripping back regulation, cutting taxes and axing quangos, among other measures to make doing business easier and unlock opportunities in energy.<\/p>\n

Asked if Scotland is too prone to taxing, he said: \u201cI think that\u2019s it.\u00a0The answer is, \u2018Oh, we don\u2019t have enough money, we\u2019ll just tax people more\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are overtaxed in Scotland and people are now squealing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m certainly squealing. Not because of my personal income tax, I\u2019ll always pay my income tax in Scotland, and I\u2019ll go with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the general population now, the hard-working people, are being overtaxed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Tom said he wants to see a \u201cfairer system\u201d \u201cso that the tax take goes up, not the tax rate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the sort of Scotland I want to live in,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He said while he knew friends who had left the country over high taxes, it is not just the rich who are taking home less pay as a result of decisions at Holyrood.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Sir Tom Hunter said he knows people who have left Scotland because of high taxes (Mike Scott\/East Ayrshire Council\/PA)<\/p>\n

(Mike Scott\/East Ayrshire Council)<\/p>\n

He told PA: \u201cIf you earn between \u00a343,500 and \u00a350,000 in Scotland you\u2019re paying the equivalent of 50% tax because national insurance is worked in Westminster and income tax has worked from Holyrood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is nurses, teachers and policemen. I wouldn\u2019t call these people particularly wealthy but they\u2019re paying half of their income away in tax. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged political leaders in Scotland to look at countries such as Singapore and Ireland \u2013 with similar populations to Scotland \u2013 for inspiration on how to build a successful economy.<\/p>\n

The SNP has previously pointed to Ireland as an example of what Scotland could like be with the powers of independence.<\/p>\n

But Sir Tom said he takes a different view: \u201cI think Scotland is one of the most devolved nations in the world and we have not made enough of our devolved powers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sir Tom Hunter suggested independence could work if the Scottish Government was more competent (Jane Barlow\/PA)<\/p>\n

(Jane Barlow)<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody says \u2018Oh, Thomas, you for or against independence?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWell look, the way to get independence is through competent government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Government had made a success of the powers they have, then you\u2019d be in a strong position to say, \u2018let\u2019s go further\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut our economy is lacklustre and our education system is falling down in the rankings.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we haven\u2019t made the most of the devolved powers we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would be in a worse economic position if we were an independent nation. That\u2019s not a political point of view \u2013 that is just arithmetic.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if we were to accept some of these policies, which we can all do within the UK, and prove that we\u2019ve got competent government, then perhaps, why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

Deputy first minister Kate Forbes said: \u201cEntrepreneurs and start-up companies are the backbone of our economy and the Scottish Government has been working systematically to develop the pipeline of support required to help businesses develop, grow and prosper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facts show that we are making clear progress in establishing the right conditions to help business founders succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a 17.9% increase in Scottish start-up businesses in the first half of 2025, while investment deals in Scotland grew by 24% in the first half of 2025 compared to the second half of 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Scottish Budget 2026-27 continues to support business, investment and a skilled workforce to accelerate economic growth, including record funding for our entrepreneurs and start-ups as we act to harness Scotland\u2019s strengths and opportunities to drive long-term prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finance secretary Shona Robison said: \u201cThe Scottish Government\u2019s tax decisions enable us to deliver higher investment in the NHS and policies like free tuition not available anywhere else in the UK, while ensuring the majority of taxpayers pay less income tax than elsewhere in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndependence offers Scotland a fresh start, with the powers to raise living standards, grow the economy and shape a fairer, more prosperous future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scots have been left \u201csquealing\u201d from paying increasingly higher taxes, Sir Tom Hunter has said, as he described…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,213255,4884,37988,712,11312,60420,29075,16,15],"class_list":["post-712074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-britain","tag-devolved-powers","tag-great-britain","tag-independence","tag-scotland","tag-scottish-government","tag-sir-tom","tag-sir-tom-hunter","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115936329263001883","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712074","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=712074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}