Tories offer to help pass SNP budget and call for tax freeze

They have agreed to do so if the SNP guarantees more funding for the NHS, police and higher education, no tax rises, and no cuts to council budgets,
The shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said that despite the UK budget not being published until March, there was nothing preventing the Scottish Government working on their plans now.

READ MORE: Scottish budget to be revealed in February despite 'unacceptable' UK delay

In anticipation of extra cash for Scotland coming from Barnett Consequentials, he has called for the funding to be used for the NHS, including to refund NHS staff who have to pay for parking at hospital car parks, and re-assessing the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) model of funding for individual health boards.

Fraser explained: "Although the UK budget will not be published until March 11, there was never anything to prevent the Scottish Government going ahead with producing its own budget in advance.

“We welcome the timetable put forward by the finance secretary for the budget process, which puts into perspective the faux outrage that he expressed at the timing of the UK budget.

“With the spending announcements already made for areas such as health and education in England, we expect there to be substantial Barnett Consequentials coming to the Scottish Government.

“That will make this the highest block grant in a decade.

“There can be no justification for additional tax rises, or further cuts to public spending, against this backdrop.

“The two areas that we view as priorities for this budget are measures to grow the Scottish economy, and support for vital public services.

“We will assess any budget proposals from the SNP government against these priorities.”

Other budget suggestions from the Scottish Conservatives include reforming the business rates system, providing £10m to homelessness rapid rehousing services, giving £50m to protect 750 police officers' jobs, and ensuring disabled people and parents of sick children are not forced to pay for parking at hospitals.

They have called for a two per cent real-terms increase in funding for the Higher Education sector and £15.4m to be spent on more beds for rehabilitation of drug users in hospitals, as well as a strategy to handle the drugs crisis. 

Should the SNP choose to accept the Tories support, the Scottish Greens would not be needed to lend their votes to the SNP.

The Greens have called for the government to take "decisive action" on climate change in exchange for its support for the budget this year by scrapping several major infrastructure projects. 

The minority SNP administration has relied on the Green's support in order to get its budget through for the last three years, and this year would have to agree to reduce investment in roads expansion plans, and fund more public transport services, cycling and walking infrastructure instead if it were to seek the party's support again.

Patrick Harvie, the green's co-leader, wrote to Mackay last week and said suggested that free bus travel could be extended to young people, and planned spending on the A9, A96 and the Sheriffhall roundabout could be cancelled or curtailed. 

READ MORE: Scotland could be set for a Budget windfall if spend matches rhetoric 

He later said that the next SNP budget "must be a climate emergency budget if it is to win our support." and added: "The Scottish Government cannot continue to brag about its long-term targets while sitting on its hands when it comes to the transformative action needed to address this crisis." 

In response to the Scottish Conservatives' plans, Harvie said that the Tories were "ignoring" the climate.

He said: "It’s no surprise that the Tories want to ignore the climate emergency while lowering taxes for their friends, but this offer does present Derek Mackay and the SNP with an interesting choice. 

"He can work with the Tories, as the SNP did in their first term in government, or he can stay on the progressive path the Greens have introduced, resist the toxic agenda imposed by the UK Government and work constructively with us to tackle the climate emergency head-on and build a new progressive Scotland."

A spokesman for Mackay said: “We are speaking to all opposition parties ahead of the budget – and there is an onus on every party to act responsibly given the UK Tory government’s disgraceful delay to their own budget, which has completely ignored Scotland and the urgent need for certainty in public service funding. 

“The Tories at Holyrood are keen to suggest where more money could be spent, but fail to say what they would cut – and their spending suggestions in previous years would have seen tax cuts for the wealthiest while depriving our NHS and other key services of more than half a billion pounds a year.”

Reliance on support from the Greens has previously landed the SNP in hot water, with the party demanding an introduction of a workplace parking levy last year.

However, later the Greens insisted the plans were the SNP's idea, when they proved hugely controversial and caused frustration among the public and members of the emergency services.

The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) - the body representing rank-and-file officers - hit out at the proposals and demanded exceptions for police officers, while the Greens insisted the plans would reduce transport emissions.

Now local authorities have the ability to implement workplace parking levies for their council areas if they choose to do so. Nottingham council, which introduced the charges in 2012, has brought in more than £9m a year since they started charging people to take their cars to work.

The last time the Scottish Conservatives helped the SNP pass its budget was when Alex Salmond was First Minister.

The SNP had an informal coalition with the Tories between 2007 and 2011, and helped pass all four budgets as the nationalists only had one seat more than Labour at the time.

The relationship benefitted the Conservatives also, who had seen a huge decline in popularity after strongly opposing devolution in1997.