The Scottish Greens must “show some backbone” and stand up to the SNP over £371 million of local government cuts in this year’s Scottish Budget, the Scottish Conservatives have said.
Ahead of Thursday’s Scottish Parliament debate on the Budget, Scottish Conservative finance spokeswoman Liz Smith said the Greens must keep their 2021 manifesto promise to increase council funding and not “abandon their principles” within a year of joining the SNP in government.
The Green manifesto for the 2021 Scottish Parliament election committed to “real terms increases in council funding”.
It went on to commit to “above-inflation increases in the share of the local government budget.”
However, Cosla say there has been a £371 million real-terms cut in core funding to local authorities.
Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Liz Smith MSP, said: “This is the Greens’ big chance to show some backbone and stand up to the SNP.
“In their manifesto, the Greens vowed to fight for real-terms increases in council funding. It will be an embarrassing climbdown of epic proportions if they break that promise within a year.
“Unless they speak up and challenge the SNP over the devastating local council funding cut they have planned, the Greens will have abandoned their principles. It will be clearer than ever that they sold out simply for the good of the nationalist movement, and not for the good of the country.
“Scotland’s recovery from Covid must come first in this year’s Budget. Protecting our economy and local public services is the least that the Scottish public expects from the SNP-Green Government.”
Notes
The Greens manifesto positions can be found under the ‘local democracy and communities’ section below: https://greens.scot/ourfuture