Helen Liddell in the Press



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Labour attack nationalist policy on business tax

by ROBERT GIBSON

LABOUR kept up its onslaught on SNP tax policies yesterday as Deputy Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell accused them of planning to devastate small businesses.

Mrs Liddell told political journalists at Westminster: "The SNP's tax policy announced last weekend will have a devastating effect on 248,000 Scottish businesses trading in Scotland.

"In panic, following an avalanche of criticism, Scotland's small business leaders were promised a statement on SNP business tax policies yesterday. Now the SNP have abandoned their proposals for a press conference. Still no policy.

"This proves the SNP are making up policy on the back of an envelope. When they discovered their plans to make Scotland the most highly taxed part of the UK would hit small firms, they said they would offset the impact with new business rates.

"Their failure to publish the plans is because they haven't yet worked them out and they want to avoid the shambles they've caused when they launched their plans on tax, their plans for court fines, their plans to increase taxes to improve roads, their enterprise policy, the public service trusts and their so-called Financial Management Strategy."

SNP finance spokesman, John Swinney, said last night: "The SNP has made very clear we will deliver a package of measures to assist small businesses. We have committed ourselves to retaining the power to set business rates within the Scottish Parliament, to limit business rates to the rate of inflation and to develop a package to relieve the burden of business rates on smaller companies.

"We will launch our formal proposals at a time when it suits the SNP - not Mrs Helen Liddell." - March 19