CUTS are “in every detail” of Labour’s plans, the SNP have said in response to Rachel Reeves’s Spending Review.
Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, the Chancellor set out how she plans to invest £750 million in a supercomputer in Edinburgh, as well as an unspecified amount of funding for the Acorn carbon capture project in the north east.
The UK Government also announced that Kirkcaldy would benefit from a £240m fund to boost its high street, and previously said that the Faslane nuclear base would see £250m over three years as phase one of a multi-billion-pound renovation.
Reeves also pledged the “largest settlements in real terms since devolution was introduced” promising “£52 billion for Scotland, £20bn for Northern Ireland and £23bn for Wales” by the end of the spending review period (2028/29).
In May, the UK Government said the 2025/2026 block grant was worth £50bn, meaning the £52bn pledge would represent an increase of around 4% over four years.
Poverty Alliance chief executive Peter Kelly said such investment gave a “positive story to tell”, but warned: “That story masks cuts to day-to-day spending in unprotected areas.”
He went on: “We all rely on public services, but when libraries, buses and social care systems see cuts, it will be people living on low incomes that feel that impact the hardest because they are more likely to use and rely upon those services. "After 14 years of austerity, any spending cuts will drive living standards down further. We’ve been down that road before and it’s not what people voted for.”
Kelly further highlighted that the review “includes £5bn worth of cuts to social security for disabled people which are expected to push 400,000 people into poverty”.
The SNP’s economy spokesperson, Dave Doogan MP, made a similar argument, saying that while capital investment was welcome, the Spending Review had failed to “help hard pressed families in the here and now”.
He went on: “Every time this Chancellor has made a major financial statement, the pattern has been the same – growth has been downgraded, the markets have wobbled, and unemployment has risen. I fear today’s trajectory will be no different.
“Usually it’s said that the devil is in the detail of these announcements, but today it is even more obvious – cuts are in every detail of this Labour Spending Review.
“The Chancellor can’t hide from her own numbers.”
Doogan then added: “The other inconvenient truth of this Spending Review is that it might not be worth the paper it is written on by the time we get to the next UK Budget.
“The Chancellor’s own choices mean that Labour may well be coming back for more cuts because they are trapped in the spending rules they copied from the Tories.
“For Scotland, the doom loop of the UK’s economic decline, of damaging Westminster decisions and more cuts from this Chancellor is another stark warning that the ‘change’ Labour promised is never going to happen – it’s time to take our economic future into our own hands with the powers of independence.”
Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said that "despite the shiny capital announcements made so far, Labour’s ideologically driven, self-imposed borrowing rules will still lock in austerity for many years to come".
He went on: “The UK Government could choose to tax the wealthiest in society – millionaires and billionaires – and raise more than £24 billion a year.
“Just like their Tory predecessors – Labour remain all too happy to balance the books through slashing support for some of our most marginalised communities – all while allowing the rich to get even richer. Scotland has had enough of mitigating bad decisions made by Westminster.
He went on: “The message coming from this statement is loud and clear: Scotland is a resource to exploit while our environment is trashed. Renewable energy is taken south of the Border to power homes and businesses with not a penny of revenue flowing to Scotland. “Scotland’s massive energy bounty can be the game changer for Scots households providing cheaper, cleaner energy. That is why it is time for Independence.”
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, said: “Workers and communities need to see action now, promises of jobs can’t always be promised for tomorrow and never actually be delivered.
“This must include a comprehensive and tangible jobs agenda that deals with the wave of job losses on the horizon, for example in the oil and gas industry.
“We need a joined up industrial strategy that sees investment in Grangemouth and much-needed procurement decisions on buying British in defence.
“Growth and profits need to convert to jobs and wages.
“Today was a missed opportunity to lay out the funding to tackle key issues, including the energy costs crippling British industry and the local authority debt which is straight-jacketing services in our communities.
“Spending cuts will be seen as austerity, those are the facts. Labour needs to pick up the pace on change otherwise it will be stuck in the political slow lane while other voices get louder.”
