Scottish Labour demanded that the SNP comes clean on the Local Income Tax cover-up as a media report revealed that the bill to the tax-payer is now running at over £85,000.
The SNP government is taking the case to the Court of Session, at the expense of the taxpayer, to halt the publication of figures from the Scottish Information Commissioner.
Scottish Labour’s candidate in Clackmannanshire and Dunblane Richard Simpson said:
"The SNP clearly have something to hide and people are outraged that the hard-pressed taxpayer is now picking up at least an £85,000 bill for this continuing deception. The SNP originally said that this action had only cost £5,000 but this has also been exposed as false.
"A local income tax will hit hard working families in Scotland in the pocket and that is why Labour will fight the SNP's damaging proposals. But the SNP need to come clean with the public and release this information instead of trying to cover it up ahead of the election.
“Voters are rightly angry at this continuing cover-up.”
Scottish Labour’s finance spokesman Andy Kerr said that the CPPR report published yesterday showed that there was a £458m blackhole in the SNP’s spending plans.
Andy Kerr said:
“These figures published today clearly show that there is a £458m blackhole in the SNP’s spending plans. Put quite simply their numbers just don’t add up. They are proposing to spend money they simply haven’t got. This can only mean more broken promises if they are re-elected.
“Only Labour shows a surplus over the next four years without having to rely on achieving generic efficiency savings or using borrowing powers and we are the only party that has ensured we have a balanced budget.
“Now the Tories are back we need a government in Scotland that will concentrate on what really matters and not make pie in the sky promises they can’t keep.
“The SNP have not even allocated any money to pay for the retention of police numbers which is a shocking admission and shows that again they are setting up another broken pledge.”
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Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray said that yesterday’s GDP figures represented more grim news for the Scottish economy coming only a day after figures from the Scottish Retail Consortium that showed that retail sales had fallen for the first time in a decade. Mr Gray said: “These figures make very grim reading today and show that after all of Alex Salmond’s bragging the Scottish economy is suffering. “The falls in Construction GDP of 2 per cent is bad news for an industry that has been let down by the SNP as they turned off the pipeline of schools and hospitals because of political dogma. These figures also come only a day after retail sales dropped for the first time since devolution under the SNP’s watch. “With business insolvencies also up by a third this shows that Scotland needs a government that will concentrate on what really matters. Labour’s focus is on growing the economy, creating jobs and prosperity not obsessing about separation. “The Tories decision to hammer hard working families with a huge VAT hike is also having an effect is contributing to the damage to the Scottish economy."Related posts: