Two of the country’s leading business people have warned Scotland will suffer if it does not replicate UK tax cuts.
Entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter noted: “The latest reports suggest Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has a UK budget coming out on March 6 and they reckon he has about £14 billion of fiscal headroom. That just means he has £14 billion to play with.
“So another 2% cut in National Insurance would cost about £9 billion and a two pence cut in income tax would cost about £13.7 billion.
“But we need to remember our wonderful Scottish Government has introduced six different rates of income tax. We are higher than England and the rest of the UK. And I believe our First Minister has said, if England cuts income tax, he’s not going to follow.
“I really believe this Scottish Government is taking our country in the wrong direction.”
Fellow entrepreneur Lord Willie Haughey agreed with this analysis but questioned whether the Chancellor should be more concerned about predictions for the lack of growth in the UK over the next two years.
“There are various different numbers that have come up, from 1 .6% to 3.2%,” he said, “but we have said it for weeks: if we want to tackle all the problems we have, especially the debt problem, it should be all about growth.”
Sir Tom agreed, adding: “Yes, it should be. The IMF are saying Britain is going to be the second worst off nation in the G7. The only one, which is unbelievable, worse than us is Germany. And Germany’s been a big exporting country and it’s been a big growth economy.
“The IMF is also saying the UK should spend our tax on education and infrastructure to encourage growth and an energy transition.
“Now, I kind of agree with that, but we’re in the election year and financial decisions will be made for political outcomes . . .”
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