Scotsman Politics: FMQs Unpicked Thursday December 05 2024
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's politics show for this Thursday. We're here to unpick
00:06First Minister's questions. My name is Dale Miller. I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman
00:11and I'm joined by our political correspondent Rachel Armoury. Rachel's coming to us live
00:16from Holyrood. Look, we probably expected it to be a lively exchange straight after
00:21the budget, Rachel. And personally, I would have expected it perhaps to be about the two
00:26child benefit cap, but the Tories and Russell Findlay leading on tax. Yeah, there was some
00:33mention of the two child benefit cap. We can't really get away from that fact, but it definitely
00:37wasn't the main drive of the debates today at First Minister's questions. And Russell
00:41Findlay going first, he was very keen to point out the differences in tax between Scotland
00:45and England. This is something that's been a long ongoing debate, particularly because
00:49higher earners in Scotland pay quite a bit more tax than they do in England. So I think
00:54once you get to a certain point, we're looking at maybe £1,500 to even £6,000 more in tax
00:59if you live in Scotland. Now, the Scottish Government say that if you're on the lower
01:03end of pay, then you actually are better off in terms of income tax. However, the Scottish
01:08Conservatives are very keen to point out that it's minimal amounts, being only £1 or £2
01:13a month better off. But when you take into account council tax increases that are probably
01:17going to come on the back of this budget, it doesn't really make any more money for
01:22people's pockets, really. So that's kind of what the Conservatives were really going
01:25in on too, and just saying that it's not going to end up much, and all that these people
01:30can buy is a £1 selection box from Poundland with that cash that they have saved. So trying
01:35to get a few jokes in there as well, but quite a fiery exchange. More referring to how the
01:41UK Labour government is ending austerity, which got a lot of commentary back from the
01:47SNP backbenchers, and a lot of FECALs as well. So definitely some fiery exchanges there.
01:53Now, often the Scottish Labour Party go in on health, and today was no exception, looking
01:57very particularly at the health budget yesterday. Now, there's more cash going towards the NHS
02:03from this budget yesterday, that's what John Swinney said his priority would be going into
02:07this budget. However, Anna Sarwar says it's not going far enough, particularly referencing
02:12one of the pledges yesterday, the finance secretary said that no one will wait more
02:16than 12 months for their first appointment by 2026. Anna Sarwar saying that's not ambitious
02:22enough, we need to go further than that, because 12 months is of course still a very, very
02:27lengthy wait for an appointment. Of course, it's only for a first appointment as well,
02:31so very much saying that they'd like to go further. John Swinney quite keen to get a
02:35lot of them jives back, Anna Sarwar, particularly referencing the fact that Anna Sarwar wants
02:39to win the 2026 election and become First Minister, and John Swinney today saying that
02:44he can't even be a good opposition leader, never mind First Minister, so a few sort of
02:49angry exchanges there as well. The tone did get a bit more serious in the areas that they
02:56represent in both the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament. They said they were
03:01keen, they were very happy to see investment in places like the Belford Hospitals on the
03:04Crabber, for example, but very much just saying that we still need some more investment in
03:08hospitals in Shetland, for example, and in Skye, and of course highlighting some of the
03:12ongoing issues with women's health care in Clawson and Sutherland, so that's what they
03:17were trying to focus on instead. So a lot calmer, a much more serious tone taken by
03:21the First Minister when it came to the Scottish Lord Dems. Apologies to the viewers watching
03:27this outside, I think there's been a couple of pauses on the feed, but Rachel, that's a
03:32fantastic analysis of what's happened today. Can I just ask you, on the two-child benefit,
03:37Kat, just some analysis here. It was a bit of a rabbit out of the hat yesterday.
03:42What's the feeling around that today? Is it a political stunt, and is it set up for the
03:49SNP to potentially fire an arrow, so to speak, at Labor if they don't come to the party and
03:56help make this policy a reality? Yes, well again, in First Minister's questions today, a lot of
04:03Jive's benefit cap is an interesting one. It was completely out of nowhere, nobody was expecting
04:08this to be announced, and it is quite an interesting one. There's definitely some
04:12politics at play here in trying to embarrass Labor and show them up here. We have spoken to
04:17the Labour Party about it. They are very much saying there's nothing to it, there's no funding
04:21behind this pledge in the budget, there's no money behind it. It's very much an intention at this
04:27point. In fact, I think if you read our analysis for our political editor in today's paper,
04:32one Labour source said it is just vines, there is no concrete funding behind this move. So it
04:37depends on which side you speak to. The SNP, of course, is very pleased with this pledge that
04:41they've made, saying it's going to be game-changing, putting 15,000 Scottish children out of poverty,
04:46but those on the other end, particularly in the Labour Party, are saying there's no concrete
04:50funding here. Of course, this is potentially going to be quite important when it comes to the 2026
04:56holiday election. If the SNP can say, look, we've done this, we've got rid of the two-child cap,
05:01that's surely an election winner for them. However, if they don't,
05:04that's going to be a very dangerous territory for them if they don't do this.
05:11And I can see them arguing in that case, Rachel, that if effectively the UK Government and Labor
05:19don't match the commitment and help them deliver it, again, that could be an attack line heading
05:23into the 2026 election. So there's certainly a space to watch there. You can read all the latest
05:30news around the budget and the best analysis in Scotland at the Scotsman's website. We've
05:36got analysis there from Alistair Grant, from economist John McLaren, and David Bowle writing
05:43analysis as well today, plus full coverage from our entire team, including Rachel as well. And
05:50Rachel, I know you're covering at least a couple of areas within the budget where there are cuts
05:56and changes as we run the rule over what may be getting funding and what may be missing out in
06:01this budget. Rachel, thanks for joining us live from the parliament and thanks to everyone else
06:06for tuning in. Bye-bye.