Speaking ahead of his meeting today with Greg Hands, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, John Swinney said time was “now very short” to reach a deal by the February 12 deadline he has set and he would not sign up to anything that “systematically” cuts Holyrood’s budget.
The Scottish Finance Minister and David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, have been in constant touch in recent days to try and get a breakthrough and Lord (Andrew) Dunlop, Mr Mundell’s deputy, has been engaged in detailed talks with senior officials at St Andrews House.
In a sign of the urgency with which the discussions are being treated, the Telegraph understands that Ms Sturgeon and the Prime Minister are ready to enter the fray – by telephone – if direct talks between them looks like brokering a deal.
Both sides have said that they’ve entered the negotiations over the Bill’s ‘fiscal framework’ in “good faith” and that they are determined to get an agreement that’s good for the whole of the United Kingdom as well as for Scotland.
However, there is widespread suspicion in Tory and Labour circles that the SNP would rather bring about the collapse of the talks in the knowledge that the Nationalists’ high opinion poll ratings would mean the Scottish public would more likely blame the UK Government.
They believe that many Nationalists would rather blame London for “selling Scotland short” and agitate for independence. Extra powers were promised by the Unionist parties in the final days of the independence referendum campaign then agreed by the cross-party Smith Commission.
If the Scotland Bill collapsed, it would also mean that May’s Holyrood election would be fought on the SNP’s favoured territory of the constitution whereas the opposition parties wanted to focus on how to use the new powers.
Ian Murray, Labour’s Shadow Scottish Secretary, warned both sides they would not “get away with downing tools and leaving before the job is done”.
He said: “The new powers which rely on this fiscal framework will see the Scottish Parliament become one of the most powerful devolved Parliaments in the world.
“It will mean that Scotland will be able to make different choices to the rest of the UK. They are too important to be abandoned at the eleventh hour.”
Scottish Labour also published a dossier, titled Behind Closed Doors, lambasting the secrecy of both sides over the negotiations, including their refusal to publish any papers or minutes from meetings.
The document noted that the Scottish and UK governments originally intended to strike a deal by last autumn and Ms Sturgeon said in November that she was confident of reaching a “Valentine’s Day deal.”
However, in December Mr Swinney left the most recent meeting of the Joint Exchequer Committee stating that a deal was further away. Earlier this month, he then set what Labour claimed was an “artificial deadline which could jeopardise the new powers coming into force before the election.”
Speaking ahead of today’s meeting, the Scottish Finance Minister said: “The fiscal framework is just as important, arguably more so, than the legislation on new powers because it will determine how much money this and future Scottish Governments have to invest in our vital public services. That's why we must get it right.
“We are not asking for any special favours. We are not asking for a penny more than the Barnett formula would have delivered to Scotland. But we do demand a fair deal – one that lives up to the key principles at the heart of the Smith Commission report.”
It is understood that part of his case is that immigration policy is reserved to Westminster, and therefore SNP ministers cannot grow Scotland’s population more quickly by loosening controls over its borders.
Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/579309/s/4d439925/sc/13/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cnews0Cpolitics0CSNP0C121326950CNicola0ESturgeon0Eand0EDavid0ECameron0Eurged0Eto0Esave0EScottish0Epowers0Edeal0Efrom0Ecollapse0Bhtml/story01.htm
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