From Patricia Gibson MP
It was with mounting concern that we in the SNP benches witnessed the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne MP, deliver a budget which brought tax cuts for the better off in society and yet more bruising cuts for the disabled.
We continue to hear about how the UK must “live within its means” but it seems that this mantra only applies when punishing cuts are being inflicted on the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. Austerity is a political choice and one the Tories continue to show themselves ideologically wedded to. By every economic measure this Chancellor has failed his own economic tests with debt, deficit and borrowing levels even worse than he promised only last November.
Chillingly, the Institute of Fiscal Studies predicts that the scale of the cuts to departmental budgets and local government would reduce the role of the state to a point where it would have “changed beyond recognition” with a further £3,500 million of new cuts which will again hit unprotected departments.
The SNP was the only party to say it during the general election and we continue to say it now; an SNP budget would increase spending on public services by 0.5% a year in real terms between 2016/17 and 2019/20 releasing over £150billion for investment in public services whilst ensuring that public sector debt and borrowing fall over this parliamentary term. The UK’s deficit and debt can be brought down without the need for huge spending cuts and our plan for investment has international support and credibility. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Economic Outlook endorsed this very plan, arguing that a commitment to raising public investment collectively would boost demand while remaining on a fiscally sustainable path.
So what of Scotland? Scotland faces a further £1,500 million cut in its funding for public services over the next four years. Cuts made to Scotland’s budget between 2009/10 and 2019/20 means Scotland’s resource budget will be £3,900 million less in 2019/20 than a decade earlier; some 12.5%, whilst capital spending is already 26% lower. This comes hard on the heels of this Tory Government attempting to slash Scotland’s budget by and ADDITIONAL £7,000 million over ten years, which the SNP managed to defeat, during the recent fiscal framework negotiations.
More than anything else, this is a budget which bolsters inequality across the UK. An eye-watering £4,400 million of cuts will be taken from the benefits of disabled people over the course of the parliament. And for what? To fund tax cuts for the better off!
The Chancellor’s biggest single revenue-raising measure over the next five years is to cut Personal Independence Payments for people who need aids to help them dress and use the toilet. Disability rights groups have warned that these changes will be a devastating blow to disabled people who rely on this benefit to help them live independently on their own. Yet £167,000 million can be found over the next 25 years for the renewal of Trident nuclear weapons, and billions have been made available for A4e to run the Secretary of State for Work and Pension’s doomed Work Programme, which was described even by the Telegraph as “worse than doing nothing.”
Prior to his shock resignation last week, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith MP, described cuts to the most vulnerable as “not defensible” following a “Budget that benefits higher earning taxpayers.” Whilst he is absolutely correct, one fears his resignation is more about the internal Tory civil war over Europe than about standing up for those who will suffer hugely from these cuts. Whatever, the case, we in the SNP will fight these cruel cuts every step of the way.
