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SNP council cuts will lead to job losses says Labour

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale

Swingeing SNP cuts to council budgets will lead to job losses among teachers, Kezia Dugdale has warned.

The Scottish Labour leader told First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that the Scottish Government’s budget would increase pressure on local authority coffers.

The millions of pounds of reductions formed the central part of the last First Minister’s Questions before Christmas.

Ms Dugdale said: “The budget was a chance to take a different path to the failed agenda of the Tories, but instead the SNP decided to just manage austerity.

“John Swinney’s budget pulled the rug out from under the councils that build our schools and are vital to the education of our children.

“The reality is that Nicola Sturgeon can’t guarantee the SNP Government’s budget won’t result in job losses for our specialist teachers, class room assistants, janitors and office staff.

“Under the SNP Government the number of qualified teachers in our nurseries has fallen, the gap between the richest and the rest remains as wide as ever and the number of teachers in our schools has fallen by 4,300.

“Yet the SNP’s response to all of that is to cut, cut and cut again.

“It looks like the SNP Government is content for the next generation to pay the price of austerity.”

Ms Sturgeon defended her government’s record on education.

“This budget makes sure we are working to close the attainment gap,” she said.

Finance Secretary John Swinney announced massive reductions in council allowances in his budget yesterday.

In response, Highland Council staff have already been asked to volunteer for redundancy.

The leader of that local authority, Margaret Davidson, has mooted that the body may go against the SNP’s council tax freeze and set its own rates next year in a bid to tackle the funding shortfall.

COSLA, the umbrella body that represents Scotland’s 32 local authorities, has branded Mr Swinney’s cut “catastrophic”.

President Councillor David O’Neill said:  “Whatever way they spin it, this is an “austerity” budget of straight political choice – how else could you describe a low spend, low tax budget that will cost 15,000 council jobs equivalent to 50 Tata Steelworks to put that into some context.”