John Swinney has warned opposition parties they risk inflaming public anger with politics if they fail to support the Scottish Government’s Budget for the year ahead.
The SNP lacks a majority at Holyrood and must win support from at least one other party when its spending plans are voted on next month.
The First Minister will use a speech in Edinburgh today to give a stark warning that blocking the draft budget risks feeding the forces of “anti-politics and populism”.
The SNP leader will claim if parliament votes down the budget in pursuit of “stalemates instead of progress and delivery”, then it will be people from across Scotland who will suffer.
The First Minister is expected to say: “If we are to meet the challenge of this age, we have to make sure that our politics works for the people we serve – and that means, ultimately, doing the hard work that ensures Scotland has a budget.
“If the budget falls, the impact will not be felt primarily, directly, by the MSPs who choose to vote ‘no’. It will be felt by the people in this room and the people you serve.
“Voters will rightly struggle to understand why politicians, despite being in agreement with probably more than 95 per cent of the budget’s contents, choose to block it from passing to prove some nebulous – and ultimately highly damaging – political point.
“We do not have to look far beyond Scotland’s shores to see what happens when politicians and political parties pursue stalemates instead of progress and delivery.
“So be in no doubt. If people do not see Scotland’s parliament delivering progress for Scotland’s people – if instead it embarks down a path of political posturing and intransigence – then we run a real risk of feeding the forces of anti-politics and of populism.
“That is not something I am prepared to countenance in Scotland – because in that circumstance, nobody wins.”
Swinney will add: “In these opening days of 2025, let us resolve that it be a year of progress for Scotland. The first step is for Parliament to come together and to pass a Budget that enables us to get on with delivering. So let’s choose progress, let’s choose renewal and let’s choose hope.”
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