John Swinney was accused of trying to create a “smokescreen” last night after claiming it was Westminster and not the SNP which needed to answer key questions about Holyrood’s tax powers.
Opposition MSPs rounded on the finance minister, who faces having to explain how the government lost the 3p Scottish Variable Rate (SVR) which was backed by 1.5million voters in a referendum.
Labour accused him of misleading parliament and being “fundamentally dishonest” in last week’s budget statement. The Liberal Democrats said the Scottish Government was “spinning madly” to shift the spotlight away from its “gross incompetence”.
The Tories said “no amount of smoke and mirrors” could hide Mr Swinney and First Minister Alex Salmond’s culpability. Mr Swinney claimed “key questions” would have to be answered by the UK Government before he could explain himself to MSPs.
He insists he needs details of costs for further tax-raising powers proposed by the Calman Commission on devolu-tion, which are due to be set out in a Scotland Bill. He said only then can he tell MSPs why the SVR, letting minis-ters raise or lower income tax by up to 3p in the pound, was allowed to lapse in 2007.
The Scottish Government told UK ministers in August it would not pay HM Revenue and Customs £7million to work on systems necessary to allow SVR to be used after May’s election. Any incoming administration will now not be able to use the power until 2013-14 – a year before it is replaced by a 10p-in-the-pound tax power under the Calman proposals.
Mr Swinney told Scotland Secretary Michael Moore he rejected claims that the costs of devolution should be met by Scotland, pointing to a Treasury document which said Westminster should pay.
“Therefore, prior to making my statement, I will need answers to these key questions, which you must be in a position to answer given the proximity of the Scotland Bill publication. How much does the UK Government expect Scotland to pay for the operation of the Calman tax powers, when do you expect Scotland to pay, and exactly when will the powers you propose be in place?” said Mr Swinney.
Labour’s constitutional affairs spokeswoman Pauline McNeill has written to Mr Salmond asking him to investigate if Mr Swinney had breached the ministerial code of conduct and misled parliament. She said: “This is a blatant attempt by John Swinney to create a smok-escreen to divert attention away from the fact that he misled parliament.
“Calman didn’t even exist when the SNP government first failed to pay the annual fee in 2007. In his budget statement last week, it was fundamentally dishonest for Mr Swinney to say the Scottish Government had explored options using the SVR when this option no longer existed.
“We need to know which other members of the cabinet were aware of the decision, why the administration chose to keep it a secret from parliament, and what else the SNP is hiding.”
Lib Dem finance spokes-man Jeremy Purvis said: “The latest attempts to def-end the removal of the constitutional powers of the parliament raised more questions over the SNP government’s competence and honesty than answers. They took the decision to cancel a tax power voted through by over one-and-a-half million Scots. The SNP are spinning madly to shift the attention away from their gross incompetence.”
Tory finance spokesman Derek Brownlee said: “John Swinney, Alex Salmond and the SNP have serious questions to answer. No amount of ministerial smoke and mirrors can hide their culpability.
“The SNP effectively neutered Holyrood’s tax powers. The SNP has tied the hands of the next Scottish government. Is this the real reason the SNP dropped its local tax plans?”
Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said: “It’s clear that SNP ministers knew they were letting the tax-varying power lapse in 2007, and that they were keeping the Scottish people in the dark.”
A Scotland Office spok-esman said: “The forthcoming Scotland Bill has nothing to do with a decision by the Scottish Government to remove Holyrood’s SVR power. They are two very different things. The SVR power was available to MSPs and now it isn’t. It can be used again in 2013 at earliest.”