First Ministers’ joint letter: Scottish Government cannot have it both ways

The First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have issued a joint declaration attacking the UK Government's spending plans.

Derek Brownlee MSP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance & Sustainable Growth, said:

"The Scottish Government cannot have it both ways. Whatever spending totals are announced in the spending review, Scotland will face larger cuts - £332m more - as a direct result of the SNP Government's refusal to make any savings this year.

"The SNP is quick to criticise the pace of deficit reduction, but silent on what level they would advise. Allowing the debt interest payments to balloon, as the Scottish Government seems to advocate, will in the long term put even more pressure on the Scottish Budget and lead to deeper cuts in the future.

"If Alex Salmond put as much effort into trying to identify savings as he does complaining about them, Scotland would be a lot better off."

1) World Bank president Robert Zoellick has praised the UK Government's spending plans.

He told Sky News' Jeff Randall: "I think that what frankly is being done in Britain is courageous and important.

"It's going to have to be done elsewhere to deal with the uncertainty created by very, very, very large debt."

2) Other leading financial figures have also praised the plans.

• CBI. ‘The government rightly decided to limit public spending. The alternative would have been tax rises and other consequences that would have damaged the economy for years to come' (John Cridland, the CBI's deputy director-general, 19 September 2010)

• Mervyn King. ‘Vague promises would not have been enough...It is not sensible to risk a damaging rise in long-term interest rates that would make investment and the cost of mortgages more expensive. The current plan is to reduce the deficit steadily over five years - a more gradual fiscal tightening than in some other countries' (Mervyn King, Speech to the TUC Annual Conference, 15 September 2010).

• Moody's. ‘Moody's stable outlook on the UK's AAA rating - implying that the rating is not expected to change in the foreseeable future - is largely driven by the government's commitment to stabilise and eventually reverse the deterioration in its financial strength' (Moody's, Press Release, 20 September 2010).

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