Nicola Sturgeon criticises Labour over lack of alternative Budget proposals
Nicola Sturgeon has described Labour’s failure to offer an alternative proposal for the Scottish Budget as “unacceptable”.
At First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, Labour leader Richard Leonard accused the Scottish Government of not providing councils with appropriate levels of funding in order to tackle homelessness in its draft Budget.
Ms Sturgeon responded by saying Mr Leonard’s party would not be taken seriously in Scotland if it could not offer any suggestion as to how to provide such funding.
There have been calls to increase council funding since the Budget was announced in December by Finance Secretary Derek Mackay.
Mr Leonard said: “Our councils have a legal duty to vulnerable people, including children, and you have a moral duty to deliver the funding they need.
“By asking this Parliament to vote for a Budget that cuts council services by over £300 million, you are failing in that duty.”
The First Minister said only Labour MSP Alex Rowley had offered any proposal in a bid to get the Budget passed.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Richard Leonard talks about the Budget and makes criticisms – he has failed to bring forward a single alternative Budget proposal and that is simply not acceptable.
“Credit to Alex Rowley, at least he brought forward a proposal. Given he’s a front-bencher, we assumed it was an official Labour proposal, but they can’t even get their act together to agree with each other on the Budget, let alone agree with anyone else.
Labour will vote down the SNP’s budget later today as it will cut taxes for higher earners and slash lifeline services.
Here’s how Labour would use Scotland’s powers #ForTheMany 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/r6UZleVnOu
— Scottish Labour (@scottishlabour) January 31, 2019
“In that proposal, Alex Rowley suggested that we free up more money for local government by effectively taking 3% out of every other budget, except health – that would have included social security.
“So taking 3% out of our own social security budget is the closest that Labour came to making any Budget proposals.
“So I simply say this to Richard Leonard: If he wants anybody, not just me, but anybody across the country to take Labour seriously on the Budget, he really has to do more than stand up here and moan, he actually has to start bringing forward some proposals, because he hasn’t done so, so far.”
