Scottish Government set to deliver 'difficult' budget as SNP ministers consider tax hike

dailyrecord.co.uk:

SNP ministers have been called on to protect jobs and public services as the Scottish Government prepares to reveal its annual budget.Shona Robison, the Finance Secretary, will set out Holyrood's draft spending plans for the year ahead in a speech to MSPs this afternoon.It follows reports the Scottish Government is struggling to plug a £1.5 billion hole in the country's finances and could hike income tax for high earners as a result.Anas Sarwar today called for ministers to rule out any compulsory redundancies in the public sector as multiple organisations face real term cuts to their budgets.The Scottish Labour leader accused the government of wasting billions through economic "incompetence".He said: "There has to be a commitment to no compulsory redundancies.

But we have to look at how we got ourselves into this situation."This is going to be a difficult budget because of 16 years of SNP incompetence and a failure to manage our finances appropriately."We have a failure to grow the Scottish economy in line with other parts of the UK."All of that is causing negative consequences.

We've had billions wasted under the SNP."We have higher per head spending on health and education but we still have poorer outcomes as a result."We have a government that doesn't understand economic policy."It's a majority SNP Government - it's their mess, they have to fix it."It's for us to call for the protection of the workforce and our public services."Asked if a future Labour government would look at scrapping some universal benefits like free prescriptions, Sarwar added: "I think those debates have been had, and people have accepted that's what we want."We want to maintain free tuition and to maintain free prescriptions."The STUC implored