John Swinney praised Tory cuts chancellor George Osborne as a 'believer' in devolution

dailyrecord.co.uk:

First Minister-elect John Swinney praised a former Tory Chancellor who pushed through deep benefit cuts as a “believer” in devolution.Swinney said George Osborne and Lib Dem sidekick Danny Alexander were “respectful” to Holyrood when they shared power at Westminster.Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: “It’s no surprise to hear John Swinney praising Osborne - the fact is that John Swinney passed every budget between 2007 to 2011 with Tory support.“The simple fact is that you couldn’t get a cigarette paper between Swinney and the Tories.“While he harks back to the good old days of doing deals with the Tories, Scottish Labour is focused on booting both the Tories and the SNP out of power.”Osborne and Alexander were at the Treasury together between 2010 and 2015 when the Tories and Lib Dems were in coalition.The five year partnership was marked by attacks on welfare spending to help close the budget deficit.Policies included a limit on the amount families could receive in benefits and the bedroom tax.They also cut the top of income tax for millionaires.Swinney, who was crowned SNP leader today without contest, was a key critic of the coalition at the time.But his tone was different at a Resolution Foundation event last week on the same day as Humza Yousaf resigned.Speaking about relations with the UK Government during devolution, he said Whitehall had been “quite a benign presence” for “most of the last 25 years”.He said: “In the period of the coalition Government between the Conservatives and the Liberals, 2010 to 2015, I actually thought those years were probably the most respectful years in relation to the interaction between the devolved governments and the UK Government.”“The operating culture at that time was pretty good.”