LABOUR’S Budget delay leaves Scotland as an “afterthought” and makes it “almost impossible” for the Scottish Government to plan its Budget, Keir Starmer has been warned.
SNP deputy leader Pete Wishart blasted the UK Government for leaving the autumn spending announcement “to the eleventh hour” which he argued threw Scotland’s planning into disarray.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that her latest Budget would be unveiled on November 26.
The Scottish Government’s Budget must be set after the UK plans are released, meaning the chances of having a fiscal platform agreed before Christmas are slim, Wishart said.
Speaking at the first Prime Minister’s Questions after the summer break, the SNP MP said: “The Budget date has finally been announced and once again Scotland is some sort of distant afterthought.
NEW: SNP MP Pete Wishart has accused the UK Government of wrecking Scotland's budgetary process after Labour announced a 'last-minute' Budget date without notifying the Scottish Government 🗣️ 'Once again, Scotland is some sort of distant afterthought' pic.twitter.com/8XpfhG9Xzk
— The National (@ScotNational) September 3, 2025
“A Budget date left to the eleventh hour because they do not know how to resolve their countless counter-burachs, a Budget date that has practically wrecked Scotland’s budgetary process, leaving it almost impossible for us to pass a budget before Christmas, leaving great uncertainty in Scotland’s public services.
“They couldn’t even be bothered to notify the Scottish Government, leaving them to find out on social media. So can I ask the Prime Minister, how is this reset in relations working out?”
Starmer replied: “He overlooks the fact that at the last Budget there was a record settlement for Scotland, £50 billion a year. And he talks about the support, we’ve just won this Norway frigates contract that is 15 years of shipbuilding in Scotland.
“The First Minister of the SNP has said what about that since Sunday? Absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing.”
Finance Secretary Shona Robison said the delay "makes it incredibly difficult for the Scottish Government to undertake the detailed financial planning needed to bring forward our own budget in the usual timescale".
She added: "Unless the UK Government reconsiders this decision, it is highly unlikely that the Scottish Government will be able to bring forward our Budget and spending review before Christmas. Given the short period available before Parliament dissolves in March, it is incredibly unhelpful that the initial parliamentary scrutiny will likely be delayed into January.
"It could not be clearer that Scotland is little more than an afterthought for the UK Government.”
Elsewhere in the session, in which Starmer backed his embattled Deputy Prime Minister to the hilt despite her admitting earlier in the day to having underpaid stamp duty on her second home, the PM left the door open to reviving an asylum returns deal with the EU.
SNP MP Stephen Gethins asked Starmer whether the UK would rejoin the Dublin Regulation, a mechanism by which European countries can return asylum seekers to other nations.
Brexit took Britain out of the scheme and the SNP have argued this has led to the spike in asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats.
Gethins (above) said: "Figures published by the House of Commons library shows that those asylum seekers that are forced to cross [the Channel] has increased dramatically after Brexit as a result of leaving the Dublin Regulation.
"So instead of punching down and joining in with the victim blaming of Reform and the Conservatives, will the Prime Minister reject their isolationism and look to rejoin the Dublin Convention like every other country in western Europe."
Starmer replied: "On the question of Dublin Agreement, I agree with him. We had a returns agreement with the whole of Europe. It was ripped up when we left the EU by people who made promises that that wouldn’t be the case.
"We’re rebuilding that relationship, we’ve reset that relationship. We now have a returns agreement with France. We wouldn’t need a single returns agreement with France if we hadn’t ripped up the Dublin Agreement."
