Goldie: Questions for SNP on tax powers cover up

Speaking in this afternoon's emergency debate on the Scottish Variable Rate of Income Tax, following the row that has escalated since last week, Annabel Goldie MSP, Scottish Conservative Leader, said (check against delivery):

I'm still not clear whether this fiasco is an SNP mess up, an SNP Machiavellian conspiracy or both.

But one thing is clear: There has been a cover up.

This is not some minor administrative slip by a junior official.

This is not some academic exercise about fantasy powers.

This has been a systematic, concerted, and conscious cover up lasting more than three years.

When the people of Scotland voted for our parliament to have the power to vary income tax, it did not give that power to the SNP or any other party.

It gave it to the Scottish Parliament. It is the people's power – not Mr. Swinney's or Mr. Salmond's. And yet Alex Neil admitted on radio this morning that Mr. Swinney chose to stop updating the HMRC system in 2007. Why was this Parliament not told of that decision?

And to argue, as the SNP has done over recent days, that none of this matters, the power was never going to be used, that they made that clear at every budget, is to completely miss the point, that attitude is grossly misleading and it is blatantly hypocritical.

And here's why: It misses the point because no minority party in this parliament of minorities has the right to shackle the other parties. And to neuter the ability of the next parliament to exercise its rights under the Scotland Act is a betrayal of democracy. And as we now know, when the SNP rendered the tax varying powers unusable, they knew what the consequences would be for the next Parliament – but they didn't let anyone know.

And it is grossly misleading and blatantly hypocritical to claim that none of this mattered because time after time during the last 3 and a half years, the SNP has trumpeted Local Income Tax. Now unless it was conning the voters – and never really intended to introduce LIT, then why did Mr. Swinney say in July 2008 that:

"We propose that LIT is collected through the existing PAYE system and self assessments. The Scottish Government will pay Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to administer and collect the tax" and he then went on to publically praise HRMC's cost efficiency – whilst the SNP was making these procedures unusable!

And in the SNP's consultation in March 2008, they asserted that:

"...the SVR could, in principle, be introduced relatively quickly." And:

"HRMC is the most efficient way of delivering a local income tax because HRMC already hold relevant data and has the experience and systems that we need to collect a local income tax."

So in 2008 the SNP is telling the world that HRMC is cost effective, that HRMC is efficient and quick and that HRMC holds the relevant data and has the systems. Just press the button, all ready to go.

But how could that be when the SNP had stopped updating the records?

It doesn't add up.

Presiding Officer. Let me tell you what else just doesn't add up.

Whenever the UK government does or says anything which could be construed as doing Scotland down, who is the first to shout blue murder? For example, Take Prisoner Transfer, and the outrage from Alex Salmond over him being potentially cut out of a deal. Alex Salmond was incandescent and he was correct.

But can you imagine the hullabaloo from messrs Salmond and Swinney if the Westminster Government by act or omission denied this Parliament the right to exercise a power? Alex Salmond and the SNP would take to the streets in protest.

But what happens when this Parliament is denied the effective use of a Scotland Act power by the SNP? Deafening silence and cover up.

And just when did the SNP plan to come clean? Were they really going to produce a manifesto for next May promising Local Income Tax again and still keep quiet?

Every word uttered by Mr. Swinney today, and by his colleagues around him, and by the First Minister and their minders will be scrutinised over the coming hours and days. Answers need to emerge about just what happened, who knew what and when and who ordered the cover up.

Because someone somewhere orchestrated a cover up to deny the people of Scotland the truth. That is the charge the SNP face today.

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