At First Minister’s Questions, Russell Findlay urged John Swinney to rule out further tax rises after the Auditor General found there is a £2billion gap in the SNP’s social security spending plans.
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At First Minister’s Questions, Russell Findlay said the SNP’s benefits spending was unsustainable and unfair to taxpayers and to those in need.
He highlighted an Audit Scotland report which stated the Scottish government has “not yet set out a detailed strategy for how it will manage the forecast gap between social security funding and spending”.
The £2 billion black hole was created by the SNP’s spending decisions and their choice to introduce a light-touch approach to approving benefit payments.
“John Swinney has no idea how much fraud or error there is in the social security system. He doesn’t even have a timescale for when a system might be in place.
The SNP’s approach is naive and negligent. It is a betrayal of those in genuine need and of taxpayers.
Today an SNP cabinet minister was asked five times how the benefits bill would be paid. She suggested the people of Scotland will pay for it through their taxes.
The prospect of a further £2b of tax rises, on top of the existing sky-high bills from the SNP, will send a shudder down the spine of every taxpayer in Scotland.
John Swinney must rule out eye-watering tax rises that people in Scotland simply cannot afford.
