Tories force the SNP into policing U-turn

Published on Tuesday 15 January 2008 21:26

THE Scottish Government has been forced to rethink its plans for police recruitment to win support to get its first budget through parliament.

Scottish National Party ministers are set to agree to look again at police funding as well as help for small business to secure the backing of Conservatives for their financial plans.

The about-turn will be signalled today, when a report from Holyrood's finance committee proposes to rethink the two policies.

Derek Brownlee, the Tory finance spokesman, yesterday won support for reconsidering the issues from the three SNP members on the committee. In return, Mr Brownlee voted with them to block most of the proposed changes to the budget made by Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

One of the recommendations from the report, published this morning, will be that the Scottish Government should re-examine the budget for recruiting police officers.

It will also recommend that ministers look again to see if they can accelerate the small business bonus scheme, aimed at helping firms with their business rates. The report's finding will be hailed as a major triumph by the Tories, who have maintained that their objective has been to exploit the minority government's position to fulfil as much of the May election manifesto as possible.

The concession on police – though there is no formal commitment on extra numbers – will be an embarrassment for the SNP. The party went into the election promising to recruit an extra 1,000 police, but was later forced to admit that it would only be able to afford 500 new officers.

Until now, Alex Salmond, the First Minister, and his colleagues have said that by "recruitment, retention and redeployment" they would ensure that 1,000 more police were on the streets of Scotland.

Last night, none of the members of the finance committee was prepared to comment on the report, which was agreed at a secret session.

However, Mr Brownlee told The Scotsman: "We published the tests by which we would assess the budget. I think we were very transparent about the way we have pursued the scrutiny of the budget process."

During May's elections, the Tories claimed that it would cost 17.4 million to recruit and train 500 new officers every year, and they promised to fund 1,500 extra police over the lifetime of the parliament.

A Scottish Government spokesman also refused to comment on the report, but said: "Ministers look forward to engaging constructively with parliament during the budget process."

The Tory move has infuriated the other opposition parties at Holyrood. One source close to the negotiations said: "The Tories have bought a very weak promise from the SNP and, on the back of that, will support the budget."

If the 16 Tory MSPs vote with the 47 Nationalists and the two Greens abstain, the budget will be passed even if Labour and the Lib Dems vote against it.