SNP had previously accused Westminster of misrepresenting Scotland's finances
As Left Foot Forward reported yesterday, the SNP have brought forward an amendment to the Scotland Bill that would provide full fiscal autonomy (FFA) for Holyrood.
The amendment would allow the Scottish parliament to remove the reservation on taxation, borrowing and public expenditure, enabling them to legislate for FFA.
In a statement, SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson MP accused Tory and Labour politicians of trying to block the additional powers by misrepresenting Scotland’s financial position:
“The IFS figures they cite suggest that Scotland would have a deficit of £7.6 billion in 2015-16. But over the five years to 2013-14, the UK’s cumulative deficit has been worth over £600 billion.”
But according to the IFS, it is actually the SNP who are misusing figures. Speaking to the Financial Times(£), programme director Gemma Tetlow said:
“Our figures are not that Scotland’s borrowing [under the SNP’s plans] would be £7.6bn in 2016-17. Our figures suggest £14.2bn.”
As the FT reports, the IFS say that FFS would create a deficit of 4.6 per cent of national income in five years – equivalent to £8.9bn. According to the SNP, not only is this figure sustainable, it is comparable to past deficits run by UK governments.
Angus Robertson said yesterday that:
“The UK has been in deficit in 43 of the last 50 years. On the basis of the Tory and Labour argument, the UK can’t afford to be fiscally autonomous. This figure also implies that a fiscally autonomous Scotland would continue to stick with the current Tory spending plans, which clearly it would not.”
But in a report also published yesterday, the IFS refuted this:
“There have been very few years when the UK has run a deficit as large as 4.6 per cent of national income. In fact, this has only happened during the recent crisis period, the recession of the early 1990s, and the troubled times of the mid- to late 1970s.
“Furthermore, were the UK to run borrowing at this level, debt would be likely to continue rising over the longer term, rather than falling.”
Ruby Stockham is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter
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40 Responses to “IFS accuses SNP of misusing figures to push for full fiscal autonomy”
Angus Ogg
And the IFS isn’t a right-leaning organisation that’s just a biased mouthpiece for the Brits. It’s always truthful, reliable, and states only the facts…said nobody ever.
gunnerbear
If the Scots were so confident that they could survive independence they’d have voted for full independence….not a case of “Mum….Dad….I’m moving out but you will keep paying for me won’t you….” It would be excellent if Scotland gets FFA and then we can turn off the money tap so that if the Scots want more spending per head in Scotland…..they’ll be the ones paying for it…….not pensioners in Grimsby and Hull. Perhaps it’s time for England to have a vote on the future of the Union – ohh, silly me….we’re going to have one when we have the EU vote. Can you imagine it when the English vote to get out of the EU and the Scots demand to be ruled from Berlin.
Scottish Scientist
Entrepreneurs will not be afforded autonomy, fiscal or otherwise, in Scotland because no-one in Scotland gets out from under the misrule of the thin-skinned police state that will countenance no rival, competent leadership of the key economic institutions such as the Scottish universities, banks, legal system etc.
Sure there is an argument that more could be done with full fiscal autonomy, if that included the powers for the Scottish government to manage a Scottish budget deficit, with agreed, limited borrowing and money printing powers.
But when there is no academic freedom and no civil liberties and the police state in Scotland can smash down the doors of private enterprise to take away the means of production, then everything else the Scottish government might do with new powers pales into insignificance.
And when the Scottish political class including the SNP is subordinate to the independence of the costumed, jock-boot police state wherein macho managers can call police or lawyers to drive out the most talented Scots off the campus, the workplace or out of the country then everything else is secondary.
Scotland is not a free country, meaning the citizens have no rights nor democratic freedoms but are subjected to tyranny, and until the Scottish government start addressing that number one problem the Scottish economy will flounder.
And it’s not a question of “exaggerating the difficulties”, Mr Robertson.
If we the people of Scotland had real personal and economic freedom in our daily lives, I am very confident we could do very well indeed.
But there has been no exaggeration of the difficulties imposed by the gangsters who run the UK police state in Scotland and the failure of all Scottish political parties to address the issue and come up with a solution.
Jim Bennett
No axe to grind there then!
Jim Bennett
I’d happily be ruled from Berlin. Wonderful city! London, however, is a smelly shite heap who’s tube system makes my bogies go black.
Mind you, I do have a soft spot for Hull: first place I ever had curry sauce and chips. So, I’ll happily take their pensioners financial contribution to pay for my free prescriptions in compensation for the health damage they did to me!