TORIES ALLY WITH LABOUR TO SAVAGELY CUT SCOTTISH SPENDING

GOLDIE RENEGES ON PROMISE TO LIMIT CUTS IN SCOTLAND

"WHERE WILL TORY-LABOUR ALLIANCE MAKE THEIR CUTS?"

The Tories in Scotland have reneged on a promise to limit Scottish spending cuts to £28 million and are now backing Labour's plans for £500 million says SNP MSP Joe FitzPatrick – a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee.

Yesterday Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie demanded that £500 million of cuts be identified in Scottish public spending - a figure supported by the Labour party.

This is in direct contradiction to their statement in January when they said that their plans had been drawn up in such a way that Scotland would only have to find £28 million of cuts because they would not affect health and education spending south of the border. (The Scottish budget is determined by spending in departments south of the border under the Barnett Formula.

Commenting Mr FitzPatrick said:

"Annabel Goldie's confirmation yesterday that she now wants to support Labour's plans for £500 million in spending cuts only confirms our previous concerns that the Tories would renege on their promise to limit cuts to £28 million.

"With Annabel Goldie now confirming she is supporting Labour's cuts she now has to follow her own advice and come clean. She has to explain why she has reneged on that promise not to cut spending by £500 million?

"And she and her Labour allies must also say where they will make their planned cuts. That the Tories plan £500 million cuts means that both they and Labour will cut spending to frontline services in health and education in Scotland.

"However they have not identified one area to cut despite calling for details from others. In fact both have been calling for more spending over this very weekend!

"If both were truly standing up for Scotland's public services they would be opposing these cuts like the SNP.

"They would both be agreeing with the SNP that the best way to save the tax payers cash is to dump the multi-billion Trident nuclear missile programme and the last vestiges of ID card, instead of cutting jobs and services.

“And with the latest GERS analysis showing Scotland in budget surplus – with a surplus of some £2.3 billion in the past three years - it beggars belief that two parties in the Scottish Parliament would be following their London bosses' cuts agenda.

"Rather than pay the price for the UK's mismanagement of our economy, the Westminster cuts make it absolutely clear why Scotland needs to gain responsibility for all of own tax and spending with independence.”

Plaid MP: ‘Holtham confirms that Barnett formula drastically needs to change’

Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price MP has responded to today’s findings in f the Holtham Commission’s interim report.

Plaid Cymru has long campaigned for the discriminatory Barnett formula to be reviewed - arguments that are confirmed in the report’s findings. The investigations in the report also show that under the present system, Wales would lose out on over £8billion in the ten years from 2010.

Plaid’s Adam Price MP commented:

“The findings in the Holtham report do not come as a surprise. Plaid has campaigned consistently for the Barnett formula to be changed but has lacked support from other parties.

“We can now look forward to seeing the recommendations to in the final report. I would expect for this report to be treated in the same way as the Calman commission for the Scottish system did, and for the Government to accept them in full.

“The findings of these investigations by prestigious economists now confirm without a doubt the truth behind the fundamental injustice of the Barnett Formula.

“It is no longer a sustainable argument that resources in Wales can be controlled in this way. We are losing out

“The problem has been diagnosed and now we must focus on the solutions.

“These findings should form the basis of that final report and I would expect the UK Government to respond by bringing forward legislation to that effect. The Holtham Commission deserves that courtesy and Wales deserves that such respect be shown to it.”