The annual Budget row between political parties got under way yesterday, as horse-trading started ahead of the publication of the Bill today.
Finance Secretary John Swinney confirmed he would be prepared to resign from office if he did not get his Budget through. He said the SNP government would quit power if it failed to get the Budget through Holyrood.
As a minority government, the SNP administration needs support from other political parties to get its Budget passed. John Swinney's comments matched the threat by First Minister Alex Salmond to resign last year if Holyrood did not support his first Budget. Labour leader Iain Gray insisted his party was prepared to see the SNP fall. "If the SNP's Budget puts jobs and services at risk, we will not support it," he said.
A year ago, the SNP faced a potential crisis over its 2008-2009 Budget and Labour embarrassed itself by failing to press any amendments.
This year the Tories have continued to be wooed over business rates and police numbers while the Green's were given encouragement yesterday over additional cash for home insulation. The Tories have also had regular back-room talks, which last year saw action on business rates, council tax and police numbers.
Mr Swinney challenged his opponents yesterday, saying: "If the government was unable to get its Budget through, we would have to leave office and there would have to be either a new administration formed or an election called and I don't think anyone wants that in the midst of an economic downturn." He added: "Politically, the government has to get its Budget through because without it the government cannot function, we cannot support public services, we cannot implement a policy programme. So quite clearly, if the government was unable to get its Budget through, we would have to leave office."
However, Labour leader Iain Gray accused the SNP of being "rather childish" and added they should be focusing on producing a Budget to support jobs and the economy.
He said: "We heard this threat last year from Alex Salmond, but we all knew they had the Tory vote in the bag. We are not in the slightest bit worried by these silly threats. The SNP love to grandstand but it is all rather childish. It would be interesting to see if the SNP are bluffing or really mean it. Instead of sabre rattling, the SNP should be concentrating on producing a Budget that will protect Scottish jobs and our economy.
"I have made clear that John Swinney must change his Budget in the face of the economic situation. This means more money for skills and retraining, and protection for vital public services.
"I am ready and willing to offer Scottish Labour's support for any serious proposal that will boost the economy, but if the SNP's Budget puts jobs and services at risk we will not support it."
Liberal Democrat finance spokesman Jeremy Purvis said: "Even with the re-profiling of some capital projects, the SNP's Budget choices have changed by less than 1% to those published in the spending review in 2007. This is a woefully inadequate response to the economic storm' engulfing Scotland, as the Finance Secretary describes the current situation."
The Tories, whose sup port helped the SNP get its Budget through last year, claimed yesterday to have already won a concession in this year's Budget.
Click here to comment on this story...
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article