ALL eyes are on Holyrood as the Scottish Government presented its £60 billion budget to the Scottish Parliament this afternoon. The horse trading is well underway as the SNP needs either support from opposition parties or abstentions to have it passed. Should it fail to do so there would have to be early Scottish Parliament elections.
The SNP may look to strike a deal with the Scottish Greens, who have laid out a series of demands for what they want to be included in the budget including the maintenance of last year's spending of £4.7bn spending on measures to combat climate change.
The Greens have also insisted that the budget must contain spending on developing the case for independence and that this is a red line for them, despite a claim by Alba's chair Tasmina Ahmed- Sheikh that the Greens had dropped a commitment to funding in the budget for the case for the independence.
She said: “However, their [The Scottish Greens] latest red line on independence did not last long. In contrast, Alba Party’s Holyrood leader, Ash Regan, has been working constructively with the Scottish Government to deliver fuel payments for pensioners and school meals for children. That’s the sort of grown up politics the independence movement needs back in the room.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Greens angrily hit back against the Alba chair's claim, saying: “This is desperate nonsense, even by the standards of Alba. Independence will feature in any budget negotiated between the Scottish Greens and the SNP.”
READ MORE: SNP to scrap Labour's two-child benefit cap in Scotland, Finance Secretary announces
Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer said: “For the Scottish Greens this is a very simple argument of democracy. In 2021 more people voted for pro independence parties to advance the cause of independence than for anti independence parties.
“I think it would be extremely hard for the SNP to explain to pro independence voters why their pro independence government is no longer working towards independence.”
Alba's sole MSP Ash Regan has said that she will support the budget if the Scottish Government agrees to certain requests including mitigation of Westminster's cut to the Winter Fuel Payment and funding for the universal provision of free school meals. She did not mention funding for developing the case for independence.
Finance Secretary Shona Robison has said that the Scottish budget will deliver progress on the country's economy and tackling the climate emergency.
During a visit to Logan Energy, a leading clean energy technology manufacturer, Robison said: “This will be a Budget that delivers progress for Scotland, by Scotland – laying the foundations for long-term success.
“We will invest in measures to tackle the climate emergency in a way that maximises opportunities to create jobs and provide new economic opportunities for businesses and communities.
“Our ambition is for Scotland’s green energy to be central to the decarbonisation of transport and industry at home and abroad, and for our expertise and innovation to be providing climate solutions, like Logan Energy, that are made in Scotland and sold to the world.”
Scottish Government ministers are confident that a deal can be struck to ensure that the budget passes.
Angus Macneil (below), the former SNP MP for na h-Eileanan an Iar, has announced he has joined Alba and could stand as a candidate for the party in the 2026 Holyrood election.
The former MP had been detached from the SNP for some time, having been suspended from the SNP Westminster group in July 2023 following a row with the party's chief whip Brendan O'Hara over allegedly missing key votes. He refused to rejoin the SNP group at the end of his suspension in August that year and sat as an independent.
He contested na h-Eileanan an Iar as an independent in this year's Westminster general election coming third behind the winner Labour's Torquil Crichton and the SNP's Susan Thomson.
While still an SNP MP he had voiced criticisms of the SNP’s independence strategy and advocated for a “Plan B” approach which did not rely on seeking agreement from the UK Government for a referendum to be held.
Speaking about his decision to join Alba he told The Herald newspaper: “There are a lot of good people in the SNP, but they can't achieve anything on independence when the clueless and disinterested hierarchy has thwarted debate for years and I certainly know about that.
“Even now independence is not in the motions at their upcoming National Council meeting.
“It is six years since the SNP hierarchy proclaimed it didn’t need a Plan B and then when the Plan A ran out they hadn’t a clue what to do.”
Asked if he would stand as an Alba candidate in the next Holyrood elections he replied that it would be a decision for the membership but that “I might put myself forward if there were indications that people wanted me to do that”.
He added: “If it helps to kick start independence I would do.”
Angus MacNeil's decision to join Alba comes as no great surprise to anyone who has watched his career, the only real surprise is that he didn't do so earlier.
Keir Starmer insisted that he works with the Labour Party in Scotland in a "harmonious way" after he was challenged on the Winter Fuel Payment cut at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday by SNP MP Kirsty Blackman who challenged him on reports that Labour's Scottish MPs were "upset" after being forced to vote for the winter fuel payment axe only to later see the Labour Party in Scotland do a U-turn on the issue.
For once Starmer isn't lying.
He does indeed work with the Labour Party in Scotland in a "harmonious way". He tells them what to do and they meekly obey him without complaint, that's pretty harmonious. Spineless is a synonym for harmonious in the Labour Party.
This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
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