UK GOVERNMENT MUST COMMIT TO FAIR DEAL FOR SCOTLAND
The Scottish National Party has called on David Mundell to commit to a fair deal for Scotland on the fiscal framework accompanying the Scotland Bill after the Secretary of State for Scotland repeatedly dodged MPs questions on the financial agreement at last week’s Scottish Questions.
Responding to a series of questions by SNP MPs, the Secretary of State was unable to say whether he supported the ‘no detriment’ principal agreed by the Smith Commission, what he thought a fair financial deal would look like, or why – given his role – he was not attending the negotiations between the Scottish and UK governments.
Commenting, Martin Docherty MP said,
“Leading economists and academics have warned that Scotland could be worse off by hundreds of millions of pounds without a fair agreement on the fiscal framework surrounding the Scotland Bill – so it is astounding that the Secretary of State for Scotland cannot provide proper answers to basic questions.
Even more concerning is that Mr Mundell has so far been unwilling to commit to the basic principal of ‘no detriment’ agreed by the Smith Commission; that Scotland should not be financially disadvantaged by the transfer of new powers.
The Tories’ only Scottish MP has been deemed so irrelevant to the negotiations on the fiscal framework that his own government haven’t even invited him to the negotiating table. Think about that for a second; the Government’s only Scottish MP has been excluded from discussions on the Scotland Bill’s financial implications. If any more evidence of the contempt in which the Unionists hold Scotland and the irrelevance of the Secretary of State for Scotland was needed this is it.
It is crucial that the financial context of transferred powers is fair for Scotland and my SNP colleagues and I will not let this matter rest.”
