PARLIAMENT BACKS TALKS ON FURTHER FINANCIAL POWERS

PARLIAMENT BACKS TALKS ON FURTHER FINANCIAL POWERS

The SNP tonight welcomed a vote of the Scottish Parliament to take forward discussions on fiscal responsibility.

The vote sees the Parliament engage in a new discussion with the UK Government over fiscal responsibility for the Scottish Parliament, moving on from the damaging financial proposals in the Calman Commission.

Commenting after the vote SNP MSP and Finance Committee member Linda Fabiani said:

“Parliament has taken the sensible decision to discuss real fiscal responsibility for Scotland and to move on from the economically damaging proposals of the Calman Commission.

“What is needed to grow Scotland’s economy, to recover from recession and to protect Scotland from future cuts from a Westminster Government is genuine financial responsibility for raising and spending revenues in Scotland.

“Not only would that help deliver the economic growth Scotland needs but it will also put the financial relations between Scotland and the UK Government on a fairer base.

“The Calman plans have always been a political fix designed by Labour’s hand picked Commission rather than by the economists recruited to advise them, and were immediately condemned.

“That a bitter and disappointed Labour party is clinging to proposals that were rejected even by their own Government is a sign of how far Labour still has to come to represent the interests of the people of Scotland.

"Following this vote I hope we will now see serious discussion between the Scottish and UK Government over genuine financial responsibility for the Scottish Parliament in the best interests of Scotland."