Labour’s Anas Sarwar, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
By Bill Heaney
“Both of Scotland’s Governments need to be doing much more to help. We have published detailed plans for actions for both the United Kingdom and Scottish Governments.
“Next week, in its spring statement, the Tory Government must cut VAT on fuel bills, scrap the national insurance increase, reverse the cut to universal credit and introduce a windfall tax on oil and gas companies that are making billions, with the money going directly into people’s pockets. Will the First Minister finally instruct her MPs to back Labour’s plan?”
Ms Sturgeon said that she had “led a debate calling for a windfall tax not just on oil and gas companies but on any company that has made substantially increased profits as a result either of the current global situation or of the effects of the pandemic.
“They literally led that call in the House of Commons yesterday, and I have made clear my views on that in response to Anas Sarwar previously.
“I hope that we can unite, in this Parliament, to call on the chancellor to make substantial and significant interventions next week to help families across Scotland and, indeed, across the UK who are struggling with the rising cost of living.
“For our part, although our powers and resources are very limited, we will continue to do everything that we can, including the 6 per cent increase in the benefits that are under the control of Social Security Scotland, which was announced yesterday.
“We will take the action that we can, but, across Parliament, all of us should be calling on the chancellor to do much, much more when he gets to his feet in the House of Commons next week.”
But Anas Sarwar told her: “Scottish National Party MPs clearly did not get the memo, because they were asked repeatedly yesterday at Westminster whether they back a windfall tax on oil and gas companies and, repeatedly, they refused to confirm that they do.
“SNP MPs did not back a costed plan for a windfall tax on multinational oil and gas companies, but they presented one paragraph that would have taxed Irn-Bru and Pets at Home. I have no idea why the SNP backs attacks on ginger but not on gas. Frankly, Scotland deserves better.
“The Scottish Government has the power to act, too. Had the SNP followed just one of our proposals … those who are most in need would have received £400 directly into their bank accounts.
“Instead, the SNP’s flagship cost of living policy is to copy the Tory policy and provide £150 through a council tax rebate—a policy that the Poverty Alliance has called ‘misguided’, ‘a missed opportunity’ and ‘deeply disappointing’.
“Now we learn that not a single person in Scotland will receive £150 in April. Instead, almost every council will have to split the money over 10 months.
“That means that the Scottish Government’s flagship cost of living policy is worth just £15 a month for the next 10 months. At the same time, Which? [magazine] said this morning that Scottish families will be spending an extra £84 a month on food and fuel.
“First Minister, people are struggling right now. How can you possibly believe that that is good enough?”
However, Ms Sturgeon told him: “On the £150 payment, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy has set out clearly that, because of our limited powers and control over the data around that payment, we have made it in a way that gets help to people as quickly as possible, instead of it taking months and months.
“Where we hold the power, we are doing so much more. We are doubling the Scottish child payment, for example, to help children in families on the lowest incomes. Unlike the Government south of the border, we have protected the council tax reduction scheme so that thousands upon thousands of households across Scotland do not pay any council tax at all. Where we have the power, we use that power, and where the power is limited, unfortunately, we cannot act in the way that we would want to.
“That brings me back to the windfall tax. I do not know whether Anas Sarwar read the motion that was tabled in the House of Commons by SNP MPs yesterday. It called for a windfall tax on any and all companies that have made increased profits, which would include oil and gas companies.
“This is something that Anas Sarwar might want to reflect on. Yes, let us include oil and gas companies, but why would he want to exclude Amazon, for example, from that approach?
“My final point is this: instead of Anas Sarwar standing up, week after week, asking for my views on something that I have no control over, would it not be better if he argued for those powers being in the hands of this Government in the first place?”