Former Tory Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth yesterday accused Finance Secretary John Swinney of tactics of "destruction" over his demands for full fiscal autonomy.
Former Tory Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth yesterday accused Finance Secretary John Swinney of tactics of "destruction" over his demands for full fiscal autonomy.
The old adversaries clashed at a House of Lords hearing in Edinburgh examining the future of the Barnett Formula. Mr Swinney made clear that he rejected the replacement of the formula with a new needs-based assessment because he did not trust the fairness or impartiality of the Treasury to oversee that process.
Former Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth said his advisers had always warned against a needs-based system because it could cut funds to Scotland. He asked why Mr Swinney was rejecting the argument and added: "Is there some tactics here?
"Do you see this as a way of testing the system to destruction so you get whatever else it is you want? From our point of view as a committee, we look at this and say there's some problems here."
Mr Swinney rejected calls for a needs-based system to replace the current population-based method and said the only way forward was towards full financial freedom, an approach which angered the Lords.
He said: "I don't think the funding arrangements have caught up with the changing constitutional arrangements that have taken place in the United Kingdom.
"I think that what currently happens is the Treasury continues to deal with the Scottish Government as it if was a department of Whitehall."
He was at a hotel close to the Scottish Parliament for a specially convened meeting of the House of Lords Barnett Formula select committee, set up to look into possible changes to the way money is allocated to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Mr Swinney's position on funding was "difficult", Labour peer Lord Sewel said. "This is a dangerous, zero-sum game isn't it? You're actually saying I don't want to change the existing situation because I want something called fiscal autonomy'.
"If you don't get fiscal autonomy you really don't have an argument about changing the existing arrangements," Lord Sewel added.
Committee chairman Lord Richard ended the session by saying he was "up against a wall of fiscal autonomy".
Meanwhile, a Liberal Democrat MSP yesterday backed a referendum on independence - days after party leader Tavish Scott ruled it out.
Ross, Skye and Inverness West MSP John Munro said the time has come to settle the issue. He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland: "I think that it's been debated for long enough."
Mr Scott this week told the SNP he will "not fall into the trap" of supporting a multi-option referendum, which may include questions on more powers for Holyrood as well as on independence.
