Scottish Greens and Lib Dems begin SNP Budget horsetrading Pressure is growing on the SNP to redraw its draft Budget after the leaders of two Holyrood opposition parties suggested […]

Pressure is growing on the SNP to redraw its draft Budget after the leaders of two Holyrood opposition parties suggested they would only be persuaded to back it in return for major concessions on tax and education funding.

Patrick Harvie, the co-convenor of the Greens, said his party would vote against the Scottish Government’s spending plans unless Finance Secretary Derek Mackay could be persuaded to take a more “progressive approach” to taxation.

“I don’t think we can support a Budget that has such astonishing cuts to local government services” The i politics newsletter cut through the noise Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription. Patrick Harvie

Mr Harvie – who told i last month there was a “real possibility” the Budget could fall – suggested that the SNP could win over his party’s six MSPs by reducing the higher rate tax threshold.

As it is a minority government, the SNP needs to win the support of another party in order to pass its Budget, which was set out by Mr Mackay before Christmas.

Both Labour and the Conservatives have effectively ruled out doing a deal, making the independence-supporting Greens and the Liberal Democrats the most likely candidates.

Lib Dem allies?

Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie hinted yesterday that he could be persuaded to back the Budget – but only if the SNP committed to putting significantly more money into education.

During First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood, he said Scotland’s colleges had endured a real-terms cut of £90m in seven years and called for the decline to be reversed.

Claiming that the cuts had “wiped out a whole sector of part-time courses”, Mr Rennie also said the SNP’s plans to close the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils was not ambitious enough.

In an interview on BBC Radio Scotland, Mr Harvie said his party was concerned about cuts to local services and wanted the SNP to increase taxes on the wealthy to raise funds.

“I don’t think we can support a Budget that has such astonishing cuts to local government services – local services are the ones that people rely on day in day out,” he said.

“We need to be investing in those services and protecting the wellbeing of the people who are delivering those services who [have] suffered year after year of real terms pay cuts.”

The only time the Scottish Budget has ever been rejected by MSPs was in 2009, when two Green MSPs – one of whom was Mr Harvie – withdrew their backing shortly before the vote.

Responding to Mr Rennie, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon insisted that her party’s Budget had the “right priorities” but that it was “open to discussing the detail of that with any party that wishes to engage with that in a constructive way”.

The First Minister’s spokesman added later: “Discussions on the Budget are going on, not just with the Greens but with all parties at the moment, with a view to ultimately agreeing a Budget that will pass.”