LABOUR is to seek to amend the Scottish budget to raise the basic rate of income tax by 1p and to restore the 50p top rate for the highest earners in the country.
Scottish leader Kezia Dugdale will today insist her MSPs will vote against “another austerity budget” from the Scottish Government in Edinburgh, and will instead bring forward proposals to up the tax rates.
MSPs at Holyrood will be responsible for setting income tax in Scotland from April 2017, but First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already rejected increasing the basic rate for the five-year lifetime of the parliament, as well as ruling out upping the top rate in the first year.
SNP ministers fear such a move could be financially damaging if those earning £150,000 a year or more move in a bid to escape the income tax increase.
But after Labour included the policies in its manifesto for May’s Holyrood elections, Dugdale will tell the Labour conference in Liverpool that her party will seek to amend the Scottish budget.
She is expected to say: “With the full range of powers the Scottish Parliament now has, the SNP Government faces a clear choice.
“Accept a Tory Budget from Westminster, or go our own way with proposals to grow the Scottish economy and protect our schools and hospitals.”
She will add: “If the SNP minority government do not accept these proposals, and try to force another austerity budget through Holyrood, we will vote against it.
“If they want support, they’ll need to look to the Tories for that. Labour will not help the SNP pass an austerity budget.”
Dugdale will use her conference address to say: “Nicola Sturgeon is the most powerful First Minister that Scotland has ever had.
“In her hands, she has more power than any of her predecessors to change our nation.”
When the Scottish Government brings forward its budget for 2017-18 later this year, Dugdale will pledge her party will “place amendments to introduce a 50p tax on those earning over £150,000 and to add a penny to income tax to pay for public services”.
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