Mackay braces for ‘most challenging budget’ in history of devolution

Scotland faces “the most challenging budget in the history of the Scottish Parliament”, Finance Secretary Derek Mackay has said.

Mr Mackay told the Sunday Herald that frontline services would be squeezed by cuts at Westminster as well as the consequences of Brexit.

He claimed UK government minister had “started diverting cash from services to prepare for their Brexit damage”.

Mr Mackay explained: “The Chancellor’s decision to cut our block grant for day-to day-spending on public services by over £200 million next year, down by 8.1 per cent over 10 years, brings new financial challenges on top of the pressures we were already facing.

“Trying to hide this cut under promises of three years of loans that the Scottish government cannot directly spend on frontline services is – even by the Tories’ standards – a pretty desperate exercise in smoke and mirrors, which didn’t stand up to five minutes’ scrutiny.

“The funding settlement is also challenging for our NHS. Despite a commitment of over £300m resource funding for the NHS in England, Scotland will receive only £8m of this due to UK cuts elsewhere.”

He warned that the budget would be the tightest since the re-opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, and said that “even using our tax powers, in a balanced way, cannot fix every problem the Tories’ austerity agenda and impending Brexit have created”.