SCOTTISH Labour have been left red-faced after their pre-scripted attack lines for the SNP-Green government’s Budget were found lying around the Scottish Parliament.

The SNP branded Anas Sarwar’s party a band of “fortune tellers” after the A4 script was found in the Holyrood’s Donald Dewar Room, which houses a collection of books and other memorabilia gifted to the Parliament by the family of Donald Dewar.

The Times, which broke the story, reported that the lines were thought to be part of a Scottish Labour video advert attacking the Budget.

The key announcement is due to be made by Finance Secretary Kate Forbes this afternoon. While opposition parties will not yet have had sight on the documents, Labour insisted it had a good grasp on what they would contain.

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The party had prepared lines attacking Forbes’s third Budget as “a wasted opportunity” and “just a rehashing of old ideas”. The SNP branded the script “desperate stuff”.

A spokesperson went on: “[Anas Sarwar] does get one prediction correct though — his scripted response is just a rehashing of old ideas.

“He really has missed his calling as a fortune teller with such a rare talent for talking crystal balls.”

A Scottish Labour spokesperson said that the Budget was not likely to contain enough money to fully tackle child poverty. The script says Sarwar (below) will call for a further increase to the Scottish Child Payment - which the First Minister has previously pledged to double.

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The Labour spokesperson added: “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.”

Responding to the story on Twitter, Forbes quipped: "Out of courtesy, the Govt always shares an advance copy of the Budget speech with the Opposition.

"It’s a special moment when the Opposition repays that favour and shares an advance copy of their questions with us…"

Sarwar’s script also called for more funding for tutoring at the most deprived schools in Scotland, more money to clean high streets, and a £15 minimum wage for social care workers.

The party has already demanded a £50 voucher for all over-16s to be spent in “brick and mortar” shops.

His scripted lines accuse the upcoming SNP-Green Budget of failing to “deliver on recovery and ambition for Scotland’s future” and attacks its spending plans, claiming there is now “more money in the pot” as a result of decisions taken by the UK Government.

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Kate Forbes previously said that the Budget this year would be “set against a challenging fiscal backdrop as a result of the UK Government’s decision to reduce Scotland’s day-to-day spending by removing ongoing Covid funding, despite the continuing impacts of the pandemic”.

She said the plans would represent a “stepping stone towards a fairer, greener, more prosperous future”.

The Scottish Government’s block grant will total £35 billion for the 2022/2023 year, according to the Fraser of Allander Institute. It reported at the beginning of this week that this grant would be the highest it has ever been “outwith the ‘pandemic years’”. It is 8% higher in real terms than it was in 2019/20.

However, pressures on the Scottish Budget are likely to compound in future years as spending promises mount up but the block grant remains “unchanged in real terms according to current UK Government spending plans”, the institute said.