LABOUR has pounced on comments made by an SNP candidate who claimed the prospect of a multi-billion pound black hole being blown in Scotland's budget if Holyrood became financially independent was "a myth", while struggling to explain her party's flagship policy.

 

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that if the Scottish Parliament was responsible for raising and spending all of its own cash, as the SNP would prefer, there would be a £7.6 billion shortfall in the current financial year, rising to closer to £10 billion by the end of the decade.

The SNP has said it intends to push for the powers, also known as devo-max or full fiscal responsibility, at Westminster following next week's election. It has sparked warnings that Holyrood would be forced into tax rises, savage public spending cuts or extensive borrowing if it is to balance the books.

Margaret Ferrier, who is standing for the SNP in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, when challenged over the issue during hustings began to speak about a separate SNP policy of increasing departmental spending by 0.5 per cent across the UK.

She then added: "The 7.6 shortfall is a myth that is being created... the 7.6 shortfall is if the Barnett consequentials was gone, which it wouldn't be, plus the fact that, erm." She then apologises for losing her train of thought, before adding that the Barnett Formula, which is used to determine the grant from the Treasury to Holyrood, would be "tweaked" before Scotland received its own tax raising powers.

Tom Greatrex, the Labour incumbent in the seat, responded by saying: "Margaret's confusion in trying to explain it is indicative of the mess of this policy position."

Speaking yesterday, he added: "Margaret Ferrier's statement that the £7.6bn full fiscal autonomy gap is a "myth" sums up the SNP attitude to uncomfortable reality - which is to just deny it. Claiming you could have both full fiscal autonomy and the Barnett Formula is simply not credible. It seems she has been hung out to dry by the SNP because they know, but will not say, that their policy would result in massive cuts in spending or a tax hike simply to get us what we already get from Barnett."

An SNP spoksperson said: "The point that Margaret Ferrier was making is that the process of implementing fiscal responsibility would take some years and that the Barnett Formula would remain in place until that time."