Scotsman Daily Bulletin, July 11
Deputy Editor Alan Young and Political Correspondent Rachel Amery discuss the stories of the day
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily, built in for Thursday. I'm Alan Young, I'm
00:09Deputy Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our political correspondent, Rachel
00:14Emery, to take a look at some of the headlines. Hi, Rachel.
00:17Good morning.
00:18Let's firstly have a look at the front page, if I can bring it up. There we go. We splashed
00:26today on our report from the Scottish Chamber of Commerce, raising concerns about tax, now
00:33tax both north and south of the border. But the issue we've highlighted there is the divergence
00:40in the tax rate in Scotland, which sees higher earners pay more. And this is having an impact.
00:49It's having an impact on recruitment in particular. And we'll speak to Rachel about this in just
00:55a minute. We, of course, cover the England game last night. They are through to Sunday's
01:01Euro 2024 final. And we have a great interview at the top of the page there with Bob McIntyre
01:10looking ahead to this week's Scottish Open.
01:15So Rachel, on the tax story, we have heard this morning from the Deputy First Minister,
01:23Kate Forbes.
01:24Yes, this has been a concern about the tax variations between England and Scotland for
01:28a few months now. Basically, ever since this budget that was introduced by Finance Secretary
01:33Shona Robison at the start of the year, there's been this concern that potentially people
01:37are going to be leaving Scotland if they're a higher earner because of this discrepancy
01:41between north and south of the border. Kate Forbes is on the radio this morning. She,
01:46of course, is now Deputy First Minister and Economy Secretary in Scotland, basically saying
01:51that the figures don't show this is happening. She's very adamant that people are not leaving
01:55Scotland in their droves because of this higher tax band and the higher tax burden that is
02:00happening in Scotland. However, she says that she will keep the tax situation in Scotland
02:04under review. Don't quite know the full details of what exactly that means, but very much
02:08say that she's still keeping an eye on things and making sure things are working out, particularly
02:13because inflation has gone down. For the general election, we've heard what she's saying, that
02:18she's very pleased that you've managed to reduce inflation down to about 2 percent,
02:21which is where it probably should be. Kate Forbes is now saying that because it's now reduced,
02:26taxation is going to become more significant in terms of the conversation that we have
02:30around money in Scotland. So very much saying it's going to be kept under review, but also
02:34disputing this claim that people are leaving Scotland because of the higher tax burden.
02:39That'll be very, very interesting when it comes round to budget time. Obviously,
02:43she wasn't involved in the decision to set those new higher rates last time round,
02:51but she was also speaking today about the SNP more in general after, incredibly, it's a week
02:58on since the election, and the SNP, as we know, left with just nine MPs, a really disastrous
03:06result. She has been addressing the future of the party.
03:11Yes, of course, it feels strange to think that's an entire week now since the polls opened. It
03:16does not feel like a whole week has passed since this time. But as you were saying,
03:2048 down to nine MPs for the SNP at Westminster, so a really bad result. Of course, over the last
03:26few days, people within the party have been trying to point fingers as to who's to blame,
03:32coming out of the woodwork and criticising members of the party as well. Most recently,
03:36we had Douglas Chapman. He was a Fife MP who stood down at this election. He's seen that John
03:42Swinney needs to stand aside and instead let Kate Forbes and the SNP's Westminster leader,
03:47Stephen Flynn, take over instead. Both are very ambitious politicians. Both are quite young as
03:54well in their early to mid-30s, so it would definitely be a fresh look for the SNP if that
04:00was to happen. But Kate Forbes is basically disputing that already, saying the party does
04:05not need new leadership at the moment and needs to come together under John Swinney,
04:08which is what a lot of those who are on the MSP side of the party have been saying. So,
04:14Bemer's disputing this idea that she could take over the party to help change the fortunes around
04:19and again trying to say to party members that we should back John Swinney and that you should
04:25continue with him as the SNP leader. Indeed, interesting times ahead and that is not the
04:31last we've heard about. I'm sure you can read both those stories now at scotsman.com,
04:36where we'll also have all the very latest news and analysis throughout the day. If you're on
04:41the site, please do subscribe. If you can, then you'll be able to read and watch absolutely
04:45everything we do. And if you're out and about today, as ever, please do pick up a copy of the
04:51paper. But from me and from Rachel, it's bye for now. Goodbye.