HC Deb 03 July 1996 vol 280 cc970-2
13. Dr. Spink

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the level of revenue support for Scottish local government in the current year. [34183]

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Local government grant support amounts to £5.4 billion in Scotland, an increase of 3.6 per cent.

Dr. Spink

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that Government spending on local government in Scotland is 43 per cent. above expenditure for England? Could that spending be sustained if Scotland had its own tax-raising Parliament? If not, how could that Parliament possibly cut taxes? Would not taxes have to increase, with the result that people north of the border would take home less than people south of the border?

Mr. Forsyth

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. Local authority expenditure in Scotland is 44 per cent. higher per head than in England. It is difficult to see how the Leader of the Opposition can go around Scotland suggesting that a tax-raising parliament could reduce taxes. That presupposes that Members of this House will continue to vote for 44 per cent. more in spending for Scottish local authorities than for authorities in their own constituencies, and then sit back and watch the parliament cut taxes. That is not the real world. Labour would endanger local authority expenditure and other public services by setting up a Scottish parliament with tax-raising powers. That parliament would lead to resentment on both sides of the border, which would destroy the Union that is the United Kingdom.

Dr. Reid

Would not those who devote their time and effort to local government in Scotland like nothing better than to have a parliament with which they can work, rather than a Secretary of State and Ministers who berate them at every conceivable opportunity? Does not today's new-found concern with the House of Lords show that the Secretary of State is studying his future career pattern well, because there is no chance that he will be re-elected? May we offer a deal to the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister? If they send us a big lump of stone as soon as they can, we in Scotland will agree that the Secretary of State should be incarcerated beneath a chair in Westminster abbey for ever after.

Mr. Forsyth

The hon. Gentleman is normally a sensible chap. How on earth did he get himself into a party that is prepared to give up the office of Secretary of State, to allow a reduction in the number of Members of Parliament here and to allow hard-working Scots to pay a tartan tax and take home smaller pay packets than people in England? How on earth can he call himself a Unionist and still be involved with that rabble?