The SNP have today been accused of “crippling” Scottish workers and businesses by imposing the highest taxes in the UK.
On a visit to Gretna Green this afternoon, Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay will highlight the tax differential between Scotland and England, which he says is suffocating economic growth and exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis.
As part of his tour of Scottish Conservative-held seats in the south of Scotland, Findlay and his party’s Dumfriesshire candidate and finance spokesman, Craig Hoy, will visit a hospitality business that has seen its rates bill double this month under the SNP’s controversial revaluation.
The pair will also discuss the impact of the Nationalists’ income tax policy, which means many Dumfriesshire residents are paying thousands of pounds per year more than they would if they lived on the other side of the border.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “Scottish workers and businesses are desperate for a break from the SNP’s crippling high-tax regime.
“It’s unfair and wrong that individuals on relatively modest incomes are paying thousands of pounds a year more than they would elsewhere in the UK, particularly during a cost-of-living crisis.
“The Nationalists have stifled growth by imposing higher bills on Scottish firms – and they arrogantly ignored warnings that their brutal rates revaluation would force many businesses to close.
“Nowhere is the damage of the SNP’s punitive tax policy felt more acutely than in this area, where hospitality businesses are at a competitive disadvantage with rivals south of the border.
“The Scottish Conservatives are committed to cutting bills for households and businesses by reining in John Swinney’s ballooning benefits spending – and if voters back us on May 7, we can stop an SNP majority.”
Scottish Conservative candidate for Dumfriesshire and finance spokesman Craig Hoy said: “Individuals and businesses in Dumfriesshire are sick of being clobbered by an SNP government that treats them like a cash cow.
“People living in this area, a number of whom work just south of the border in areas such as Carlisle, are paying far more in income tax than their colleagues, but are getting less in return from public services that are in meltdown.
“If John Swinney really cared about the cost-of-living crisis, he’d cut income tax to give hard-pressed households some respite. Instead, he keeps dragging more and more middle earners into higher tax brackets.
“The Scottish Conservatives are the only party prepared to say that the SNP’s £7 billion-and-rising benefits bill is unaffordable. We would reduce it to give taxpayers some respite and get Scotland’s economy moving.”