‘Conversation’ will take place on tax hike compensation – Anas Sarwar

Scotland’s Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee said the new money available to the Scottish government did not fully relieve financial pressures.

He said most of the extra £1.5bn in the current financial year would be used to pay for already agreed public sector pay rises and there was a relatively small portion of that figure available for capital spending on things like infrastructure.

On the compensation for National Insurance changes, he said there were mixed messages.

“It seems that part of the UK government is saying one thing, but Rachel Reeves who is the chancellor, the boss at the end of the day, is saying another and that it’s already been included in the money we’ve been allocated,” he said.

“So that’s a big, big unknown.”

McKee refused to be drawn what would be in the Scottish budget on 4 December.

But asked if he thought that any further increase in taxes in Scotland would be counterproductive, he replied: “I think that is a very strong consideration.”