Manifesto pledges from the Scottish Tories would require “substantial cutbacks” to services, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said.
The party laid out its election pledges on Tuesday, promising substantial tax and business rate cuts, which would be funded by a cut in disability benefits and cuts to back office functions in the civil service.
The benefits squeeze, the think tank said, would fund about £2.1 billion of the £6 billion needed, but finding the remaining £4 billion from back-office costs rather than service cuts is “not credible”.
The think tank did, however, praise the level of detail laid out by the Tories in both the manifesto and its costing document.
Our manifesto is ambitious, credible and costed.
— Russell Findlay (@RussellFindlay1) April 7, 2026
This is how the Scottish Conservatives would get Scotland working again👇https://t.co/FjFbkZTrIR pic.twitter.com/G790L77Ir5
“Taking the entire package of measures together, this may be a costed plan on paper but whether it would survive contact with reality is far from clear,” said David Phillips, the head of devolved and local government at the think tank.
“Scotland can have lower taxes and higher spending on some services – but giveaways on the scale proposed by the Scottish Conservatives cannot credibly be funded largely through back-office and administrative savings.
“In addition to the cuts to benefits set out in the manifesto, there would likely need to be substantial cutbacks to either the range or quality of some services used by households and businesses too.”
Under the party’s tax plans, the personal allowance would be lifted in line with inflation – after the UK Government had decided to freeze it – while the higher rate of tax would be increased and the bottom three tax bands would be merged at 19p in the pound.
The Tories would also bring in a £20,000 tax-free allowances on business rates, as well as tightening the criteria for the adult disability payment to ensure only those with a medical diagnosis can receive it, and introducing a two-child cap on the Scottish child payment.
SNP candidate for Galloway and West Dumfries Emma Harper said: “The Tories’ plans have collapsed after their first contact with basic scrutiny. To say that the numbers in this Tory manifesto were drawn up on the back of a fag packet would be an insult to fag packets everywhere.
“Findlay’s plans have zero credibility, but in fairness they are based on classic Tory cruelty – slashing support for children and disabled people to cut taxes for millionaires.
“The real concern though for Scottish voters is that Russell Findlay is one of the men who Anas Sarwar and the Labour Party are desperate to do a dodgy deal with.
“Scottish voters have the chance to stop that grubby deal between Labour, the Tories and Nigel Farage’s Reform by uniting behind the strong and trusted leadership of John Swinney and delivering the fresh start of independence with an SNP majority.”
