Scottish secretary reveals bill will answer call from calman
Greater tax powers on the way for Holyrood
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Controversial plans to give the next Scottish Parliament power to raise or lower income tax by up to 10p in the pound moved closer to reality last night.
Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy announced that a white paper promised in the Queen’s Speech, which outlined government plans for the last few months before a general election next spring, would propose “as much as possible” of the greater devolution suggested by the Calman Commission.
Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats all back the Calman proposals.
Mr Murphy made it clear the white paper would include proposals on tax and borrowing and said he was working on these with the Treasury.
But the Scottish secretary’s claim that this would settle the devolution issue “for a generation and beyond” was met with derision by the SNP.
The party’s Westminster leader, Moray MP Angus Robertson, said the paper had been omitted from earlier drafts of the Queen’s Speech and not mentioned at all by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in his address, raising a huge questionmark over the government’s commitment to handing over more power to Edinburgh.
He said the agenda “is less legislative programme and more of a closing-down sale by a tired government that is out of time”.
He said the government could start right away if it was serious about implementing the Calman proposals, with no need to wait for a white paper full of “empty promises”.
Scottish Government Constitution Minister Mike Russell accused Labour, the Lib Dems and the Tories of “enormous confusion” over devolution and described the proposals as “meagre”.
Liberal Democrat Scottish affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland, agreed there was no need for the government to wait to publish a white paper before taking action.
He said: “There are vast tracts of Calman that could be implemented virtually immediately, including devolving powers over firearms and speed limits which apparently have the support of all three main parties in the Commons.
He warned Mr Murphy that if he “dithered”, intending not to act until after the next general election, “I would expect him not to have the opportunity to do anything”.
Tory shadow Scottish secretary David Mundell welcomed plans for the devolution paper “as a basis for further discussions” but refused to say before publication whether the Tories would back implementing them before the next Scottish Parliament election.
The Scottish Parliament already has the power to vary income tax by up to 3p in the pound but has been warned that the administrative cost of doing so would be high.
There is also an accounting problem – increasing the amount of tax cash collected in Scotland would automatically reduce the amount of the Westminster grant to the Scottish Government.
Mr Murphy is meeting Scottish Parliament Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson, Tory leader Annabel Goldie, Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott and Labour leader Iain Gray today for talks on how to improve “working relationships”.
He accused the SNP of putting the party’s obsession with independence before the national interest, adding: “Nobody from the Scottish Government will be there.”
Ross, Skye and Lochaber Lib Dem MP Charles Kennedy broke into the debate to urge the government to move more quickly to provide superfast broadband connections in Inverness, Fort William and Dingwall.
He said the provision enabling ministers to act to secure a broadband service was welcome because many people in the region still had no broadband or could access it only with a satellite phone.
He urged ministers to prioritise this investment because it would enable local businesses to compete nationally by overcoming the disadvantages of geography.
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Lib Dem MP Danny Alexander said: “This is a deeply disappointing Queen's Speech from a failing government at the fag end of its time in office.
“It offers nothing at all to families in the Highlands desperate to find work, businesses who needs banks to lend as they have promised, and people who want a government that will clean up politics.”
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