Spending Review 2025: Scotland
Debate between Richard Baker and Andrew Bowie(4 days, 21 hours ago)
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Andrew Bowie (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (Con)
It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Sir John, and I thank you for your patience and indulgence in chairing this debate.
It is almost a through-the-looking-glass moment this morning, listening to the Labour party criticising the Scottish Government for their decisions and the Scottish National party representative, the hon. Member for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry (Stephen Gethins), criticising the Labour Government for the SNP’s decisions. For all of us, it has been an interesting morning after the night before.
Scotland is struggling with the consequences of the Labour Government’s economic incompetence: taxes for businesses up, growth down, unemployment up and business confidence down. Scottish Financial Enterprise has warned:
“The current inflationary pressures, coupled with stagnant productivity and increasing levels of tax, pose significant headwinds to business investment.”
And that was before the charade—the farcical scenes—that we saw yesterday, which will inevitably mean more tax rises coming down the tracks in the autumn.
Richard Baker
Is it not the reality that economic growth is increasing under this Labour Government, in rather sharp contrast to the experiences of hon. Members under Liz Truss, which I think were somewhat different for the whole country, including Scotland?