Swinney urged to rule out tax rises as Tories claim Scots worse off than in 2007

John Swinney has been pressed over whether the Scottish Government will put up taxes in next year’s Holyrood budget – with the Conservatives claiming their research shows Scots are now worse off than they were when the SNP came to power.

Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said analysis of Office for National Statistics data by his party “revealed the average Scottish household now has less disposable income in real terms than they did in 2007”.

Scottish Conservative figures indicated that average disposable household income per person has fallen from £22,984 the year the SNP came to power to £22,908 in 2023, the most recent year for which figures are available.

With the Scottish Government due to unveil its Budget tax and spending plans for 2026-27 early next year, Mr Russell pressed Mr Swinney to rule out tax rises.

Raising the issue at First Minister’s Questions, he said: “People in Scotland already have fewer pounds in their pockets, they can’t afford ever increasing taxation.”

He claimed that “Labour won’t be upfront about tax rises”, ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s UK Budget next month.

Mr Findlay urged the SNP leader to “rule out any tax rises for workers in Scotland in his next budget”.

The First Minister would only say that his Government will “set out its tax plans in the budget in an orderly and rational fashion”.

In last year’s budget statement, Finance Secretary Shona Robison committed that income tax rates in Scotland will be frozen until at least the end of this Parliament.

When Mr Findlay claimed most Scots pay more in tax than their counterparts in the rest of the UK, he was accused by the First Minister of misleading Parliament.

The Tory had told MSPs that income tax changes already brought in by the SNP “mean that most Scots now pay more than people doing the same job in the rest of the UK”.

But Mr Swinney responded: “As part of my public duty I must correct what Mr Findlay has said.

“Mr Findlay was wrong, more than half of taxpayers in Scotland continue to pay less tax than if they lived elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

“I know it is important that we all speak accurately to Parliament, it is a duty I faithfully deploy, and I will also point it out when Mr Findlay misleads Parliament with incorrect information as well.

“Over half of taxpayers in Scotland continue to pay less than if they lived elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and I’m very proud of that fact.”