Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the Scottish Government is “as guilty” as the previous Tory government on the country’s finances. The Chancellor was speaking during a visit to the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland near Renfrew, Renfrewshire, on Wednesday. Experts at the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) said on Tuesday that Scottish ministers may struggle to balance the country’s budget due to above-expectation public sector pay deals, the council tax freeze and benefit reforms, as well as uncertainty about the level of funding coming from Westminster.
While the Scottish Government has attacked decisions made at Westminster for the country’s financial strife, the Chancellor used her visit north of the border to hit back. “The SNP Government is as guilty as the Conservative government of spending more than they were bringing in, and now the Scottish Government are having to make difficult decisions,” Ms Reeves said. “Anas Sarwar and the Labour opposition in Scotland were warning the SNP about the unsustainable position they were in.
They SNP refused to listen, they made decisions that were not sustainable and now it is Scottish people who are paying the price for the decisions of the Scottish Government.” Ms Reeves’s comments come after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned of a “painful” budget coming in October in a major speech from the Downing Street Rose Garden, where he asked Britons to “accept short-term pain for long-term good”. Reacting to the SFC report, Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robison said the country faced the “most challenging financial situation since devolution” following Ms Reeves’s Commons statement last month in which she revealed a £22 billion black hole in the UK’s finances.
Ms Robison went on to say decisions made by the UK government would “fundamentally damage our ability to deliver public services in Scotland”. The Scotsman has reported that SNP ministers are bracing for “painful cuts across the board” amid warnings that “years of ignoring problems” has come back to bite Scotland’s finances. All major government departments , including health, education and justice, could bear the brunt of spending cuts, The Scotsman has been told.
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