Scottish Government: Expenditure

Lord McAvoy Excerpts

Tuesday 6th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for his helpful contribution there.

The reality is that Scotland is the best-funded part of the United Kingdom; for every £100 spent in England, £125 is spent in Scotland. That is not a subsidy; it is an equalisation payment, because the whole idea of the UK is that you get the same services whether you live in Streatham or Stornoway. It costs a lot more to deliver them in Stornoway than in Streatham, so we have to pay more for that. There has been no austerity put on the Scottish Government by the UK Government; in the last six years, Scottish spending on public services has gone up by 8%, against 6% for the UK, so that is not austerity. If the Scottish Government decide to choose to increase their welfare spend by 15% and their education spend only by 3%, that is a choice for the Scottish Government and they should be held to account at the ballot box.

[Lord McAvoy (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister not understand what is happening here? The SNP Government are spending public money on issues they do not have a legal mandate for. Why is this Government, a unionist Government, not using their powers to put a stop to public money being used to divide our country? Action is required now.

[Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)]

The Scottish Government will argue that every area of legislation they are putting forward is within the devolution settlement. We sometimes disagree with that, and where we disagree with it vehemently, as we did on GRR, we invoke Section 35. That was the first time in 237 Bills that received Royal Assent and was not done lightly; that was done in a case where they strayed across the line and were making legislation for Scotland that had a negative impact on England. We will continue to monitor this. Fergus Ewing, who is part of SNP royalty, would blame the Bute House agreement with the Green Party—which he describes as wine bar revolutionaries—for putting forward “progressive” legislation designed to diverge from the UK, and that is what we must put an end to.