Deputy First Minister John Swinney has leapt to the defence of the SNP’s plan for full fiscal autonomy despite Scottish Parliament analysis which found that plummeting oil prices could lead to a £9.7 million cut in public spending.
Labour has produced its own “oil and gas bulletin” while Holyrood awaits an official bulletin by the Scottish Government.
SNP members cried that it was a “Mickey Mouse” report at First Minister’s Questions, but Labour’s deputy leader Kezia Dugdale said its findings have been confirmed by independent researchers at the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Spice).
Ms Dugdale complained that Holyrood has not seen an economic analysis from the SNP government for more than a year.
“We have got tired of waiting for this government to do a fiscal analysis, so we have published our own,” she said, to laughs and jeers from the SNP benches.
Ms Dugdale continued: “I hear cries of ’Mickey Mouse’ and ’it’s not credible’, but they should listen because this has been verified by Spice and independent experts.
“This is the oil paper that the SNP government won’t print.
“We would need a global oil price of 200 US dollars (£129) to balance Scotland’s books under the SNP’s plans for full fiscal autonomy.
“So disastrous is the SNP’s policy, that it is predicated on an oil price that has never been reached before.
“This is a number that has been approved by Spice, so they can laugh all they like but this is the reality of the situation.”
Mr Swinney said: “What full fiscal autonomy is about is about building on the powers of this parliament – powers that over the last 16 years have seen an improvement in the economic
performance of Scotland.
“Our GDP per head used to be sixth in the UK, now it is now third only behind London and the South East.
“Our productivity has increased from 96% of UK levels in 1999 to being in line with UK levels in 2012.
“The moral of the story is where we can exercise distinctive economic policies in Scotland, we can transform the economic performance of this country, and for me that is what fiscal autonomy is all about.
“It’s about enabling this parliament to take the decisions that are right for Scotland, not to be at the mercy of a Tory Chancellor that comes along one Thursday and takes £100 million out of our budget without a by your leave.”
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