Nicola Sturgeon discusses education after inquiry question

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Debate in Holyrood has intensified this week as the SNP and Scottish Green’s threaten to end support for oil and gas projects at Cambo oil field. The Scottish Greens have called for a quicker timetable to end oil extraction at the site, and are pressuring First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s party to follow suit. Environmental concerns have sparked the move, but the Scottish Conservatives have warned of the financial damage this could cause and the jobs that could be lost. Scottish Conservatives MSP, Stephen Kerr, believes Ms Sturgeon is using the Scottish Greens “for her own purposes” and is unconvinced over whether the pact can last.

He told Express.co.uk: “Sturgeon says it will last, but I’m not sure. I think she will use Patrick Harvie and the Greens for her own purposes.

“The Greens have been so craving, so obsessed with being the first Greens in Government. So they will want to hang in there, but we’ve already seen last week a back of the envelope plan for Covid passports that Harvie had opposed in principle just days before he became a minister, he was now quite happy to vote for it.

“I would think the fundamental differences between the Greens and everyone else in Scottish politics would have caused a fracture, but I could be proved wrong.

“There are a lot of people in both of those parties who are very unhappy about this arrangement that they now feel has been hoisted upon them.”

Ms Sturgeon’s pact with the Scottish Greens has led to heated debate in Scotland. The move from the Scottish First Minister comes as the SNP hope to cement their pro-independence majority and win the right to hold a second referendum.

Pro-independence MSPs were the majority in the last Scottish Parliament due to the SNP and Greens’ combined support, but the First Minister will be hoping an official pact will strengthen her case for a referendum.

However, support for secession appears to have slumped in 2021 when compared to last year.

Towards the end of 2020, consecutive polling put a Yes vote ahead, and even with support as high as 58 percent at one stage.

But this has since dropped below the 50 percent mark, and a survey by Survation this week found Scots are far less likely to back independence if they believe it will cause public spending to drop, the introduction of a hard border, or the pound being replaced.

Respondents were given a number of scenarios around the question: ‘If you thought the following scenarios were likely to occur as a result of Scottish independence, would this make you more or less likely to vote for independence?’.

A hard border appeared to be a big concern – 41 percent of the people asked in the survey said they would be less likely to vote for independence, compared to 17 who would be more likely if border posts were put up.

If people knew that taxes would increase following independence then 45 percent of the 1,040 people asked said they would be less likely to vote ‘Yes’, while 36 percent said they would be neither more or less likely.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has published its response to the latest data on Scotland’s deficit during the pandemic.

The annual Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) report shows the deficit reached a record 22.4 percent of GDP in 2020/21, as coronavirus led to considerably higher public spending.

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David Phillips from the IFS warned last month that an independent Scotland would have to endure spending cuts or higher taxes.

He said: “The UK Government has also announced increases in income tax and corporation tax to help reduce its budget deficit in the medium-term.

“An independent Scotland would need to do the same and more – or be prepared to cut spending further – given that Scotland’s non-Covid spending is currently much higher than that in the rest of the UK while its revenues are not.

“Only in the unlikely event of a massive rebound in oil revenues or a rapid and large improvement in economic performance-boosting tax revenues could such measures be avoided.”

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