RISHI Sunak has been accused of tying Kate Forbes's hands behind HIS back.
Response to the Chancellor’s emergency statement in the House of Commons, the SNP’s Treasury spokesperson Alison Thewliss said her party was glad that the Tories had finally accepted the need to extend support.
“He is coming very late in the day to do this,” she added. “And it is little comfort to those who have already lost their jobs due to the impending ending of the furlough scheme.”
The SNP MP said industry, trade unions, MPs, and people across the country had been pleading with the Chancellor for months.
“It feels like it's only this latest spike that has prompted his action here today,” she said.
“Coronavirus is not done with us yet," she warned. "The furlough scheme has saved jobs, helped paying the bills and their mortgages, and it has been incredibly important, and it is a shame that he is ending it at the end of next month.
“Hospitality travel and tourism aviation exhibitions culture and performing arts and even travelling show people, and a host of others cannot go back to normal work, because this government has placed restrictions on their businesses.
“Those jobs, those businesses are viable and it's not for him to decide the viability of businesses.”
The Chancellor, she said, “did not have the courtesy to lift the phone to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance in the Scottish Government, Kate Forbes, or her counterparts in Wales and Northern Ireland to let her know he plans to scrap the autumn budget, they found out on Twitter.
“That's not the first time that this government has had a lack of respect for the devolved institutions because this happened last year too.
“Does he appreciate the very difficult situation he had created by this, with no access to the fiscal levers and no clarity on the funding settlement he has tied both of Kate Forbes' hands behind his back. What does he intend to do about that?”
Responding, Sunak said “the Chief Secretary to the Treasury speaks regularly with his counterparts as indeed I believe he is doing very shortly.”
He added: “With regard to budgets, there is a worldwide process for how the devolved nation budgets are set, there is absolutely no requirement for UK budget to be done beforehand, indeed, that was not the case, earlier this spring.
“We will have OBR forecasts that come later this autumn and on the basis of those forecasts, the normal work will be done with our counterparts in devolved authorities to ensure that they can set the budgets that they need.”
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