Scottish Labour has been branded a party of “fortune tellers” after its leader’s budget day attack lines were found lying around Holyrood 24 hours before the SNP’s tax and spending plans were due to be announced.
The A4 script — which brands the budget “a wasted opportunity” and “just a rehashing of old ideas” — was found in the Scottish parliament’s Donald Dewar Room, which houses books and other memorabilia gifted to Holyrood by the family of the former Labour first minister.
It is thought that the text is part of a Scottish Labour video advert responding to the budget. The SNP said it was “desperate stuff” for Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, to have developed a fixed view of the programme before it was announced.
“He does get one prediction correct though — his scripted response is just a rehashing of old ideas,” a party spokesman added. “He really has missed his calling as a fortune teller with such a rare talent for talking crystal balls.”
Kate Forbes, the finance secretary, will present her spending plans to Holyrood today. Although opposition MSPs are given advance sight of budget documents, this occurs only hours before the announcement at Holyrood.
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Labour MSPs and officials held talks with Forbes last week and believe they have a reasonably comprehensive view of what will be in the budget.
The mislaid script accuses Nicola Sturgeon’s government of failing to “deliver on recovery and ambition for Scotland’s future” and attacks its spending plans “despite there being more money in the pot” as a result of decisions taken by the UK government.
According to the document, Sarwar will push for a £15 per hour wage for social care workers, a £110 million tutoring plan for pupils in Scotland’s 75 most deprived schools, a further increase to the Scottish child payment, and funding for cleaning high streets and retrofitting more homes.
Last night Forbes said the budget would help to make Scotland more prosperous, fairer and greener as part of a pandemic recovery plan.
The first minister has already broken parliamentary protocol by announcing in advance, at last month’s SNP conference, a doubling of the Scottish child payment, which gives money to low-income families, to £20 a week.
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It will also include free bus travel to everyone under the age of 22 from January.
The budget is the first to have been co-produced with the Scottish Greens under the co-operation agreement struck between the two parties in the summer.
The Greens regularly supported the SNP’s budget in previous years, ensuring it passed even with a minority government.
A Scottish Labour spokesman said that the public pronouncements from senior ministers had not included enough money to meet the Scottish government’s legal target on ending child poverty.
“Even if we hadn’t been in conversations with Kate Forbes about this budget, the finance secretary has spent the last week and a half touring television studios talking down her ambitions for Scotland,” he added.
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The Scottish Conservatives called for the budget to include additional support for smaller firms through business rates relief, increased funding for the health service and councils, new money for policing, and a restarting of the Help to Buy scheme for first-time homeowners.
