SNP Budget to pass after Scottish Labour say they will abstain on tax and spending plan
The SNP Government Budget will be passed after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said his party would not oppose the plans. Sarwar said Labour will abstain in the crunch vote next month and could even vote in favour if measures to scrap the two child benefit cap are brought forward.
First Minister John Swinney yesterday urged MSPs to back a draft Budget that contains billions of pounds of extra spending. Central is extra cash for the NHS, restoration of winter fuel payments for the elderly abolished by the Labour Government and preparatory work for scrapping the cap.
Swinney’s plan also reverses around £200m of housing cuts made by SNP predecessor Humza Yousaf.
READ MORE: Leading children's charity urges Holyrood to pass SNP Budget after two child benefit move
READ MORE: Anas Sarwar cannot keep dodging taking a position on the SNP Government Budget
But with Swinney leading a minority Government he needs the support of a party other than the tiny Alba. The Lib Dems and Greens were thought to be the most likely to back Swinney, but Sarwar told the BBC Labour will at the least abstain.
He said: “At this current stage, we will abstain from this budget, because this budget is going to pass anyway. It has the votes of another political party, at least one other opposition political party. So we are not going to vote against this budget. We will abstain from this budget. But if the Scottish Government wanted us to support the budget, they should have set up a new direction. They didn’t.”
A Labour abstention guarantees passage of the Budget.
SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison said: “Only a few months ago, Anas Sarwar’s Scottish Labour MPs were queuing up to keep the two-child cap in place – yet now he agrees it should be mitigated in Scotland as soon as possible. Mr Sarwar has said that Scotland needs change – but he seems to have reflected over the holidays and decided that it is he who needs to change. However, people in Scotland will never forgive the Labour party if it does not vote for the reintroduction of a winter fuel payment and the ending of the two-child cap. Labour have gone from calling for a new direction to seemingly having no direction.”
Swinney used a speech yesterday to warn of the "catastrophic" consequences for the NHS if the Budget does not pass.
He said: “It would put at risk £2 billion of additional investment in the NHS, causing a catastrophic reduction in service delivery. Operations would likely have to be cancelled. Nurses’ and doctors’ pay rises would be under threat. Medicines might have to be rationed."
He added: “It might mean that we cannot spend any more money on health and social care in April 2025 than we did in April 2024. Think about what that might mean for pay. If the pay rate is higher next year – and it is contractually meant to be - but the budget is frozen every month, how can pay increases be met?"
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