Scots ‘hammered’ by high taxes as public services decline, say Tories

Scots are being “hammered” by high taxes while public services in the country are in decline, the Scottish Conservatives have said.

Craig Hoy, the party’s finance spokesperson, called on the Scottish Government to slash tax and cut waste as he attacked what he described as the “bloated SNP state”.

He said the party was wasting taxpayer cash on “inward-looking, fringe obsessions like gender reform and policing free speech”.

The MSP said his party would scrap the 20p and 21p tax rates to create a simplified 19p rate for earnings up to £43,600 a year – something he said would result in up to an extra £444 a year for workers.

He said the Scottish Government was costing Scotland £1 billion a year in lost growth along with “countless billions more through incompetence and waste”.

The attack on the SNP’s economic record comes in the wake of a report from independent experts at the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) which identified an “economic performance gap” between Scotland and other parts of the UK.

This means the Scottish Government is raising less from income tax than it would if Scotland’s economic performance matched that of the UK – with the SFC saying this would likely cost the country about £1 billion this year alone.

Speaking as he moved a motion at Holyrood which called for an overhaul to the Government’s tax and spending plans, he said: “Under the SNP, Scots are being hammered with high taxes while public services continue to decline.

“That is why the motion that I move in my name in this Parliament, a Parliament that is paid for by each and every taxpayer, will force every MSP to decide whose side they are on.

“Whether they want to be on the side of the bloated SNP state or on the side of delivering a better deal for Scottish taxpayers.

“Taxpayers who are sick and tired of an SNP Government that costs them more but delivers less.

“Sick and tired of a Government that spends their money on inward-looking, fringe obsessions like gender reform and policing free speech.

“Sick and tired of paying for meaningless quangos and a civil service which has doubled in size since 2014.

The Finance Secretary accused the Scottish Conservatives of promoting “unfunded tax cuts made on the back of a fag packet” as she described the party’s plans as “not credible”.

Shona Robison said: “We know that the Conservatives proposed almost £1 billion in tax cuts last year in advance of the budget, and the impact of their approach on our essential public services, including our NHS, would be profound.

“Our progressive approach to tax underpins the entire Scottish budget, allowing us to support the most generous social contract in any part of the UK, which includes things like free prescriptions, free higher education and support, such as the Scottish child payment – all put at risk.

“Contrast this with the Conservatives’ income tax proposals, which would seek to reverse our progressive approach, giving the greatest tax cut to the top 25% of income taxpayers.”

Michael Mara, Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson, criticised the Scottish Government for what he said was an “abysmal record of 18 years of waste, incompetence and, increasingly, chaos”.