Conservatives call for £5.1bn cut in Scotland

CONSERVATIVES have called for £5.1 billion to be slashed from the Scottish Government's budget over the next three years.

The party said a 15 per cent cut to be made to the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body should be the "benchmark" for the government's own 34bn budget.

That is the equivalent of twice the annual justice budget, the entire education budget, or almost half the health budget, being cut.

Derek Brownlee, the Scottish Conservatives' finance spokesman, said: "This will be seen as the benchmark for the overall Scottish budget and is in line with the figures for cuts being adopted by councils in their forward planning. We first called for this approach back in January, and so today's announcement is welcome.

"It is a reality check for everyone. Scottish Conservatives had to struggle to get the SNP government to agree to the idea of an Independent Budget Review Group, and we look forward to when it reports in the summer.

"Labour's debt mountain will force cuts to the Scottish budget, regardless of who wins the British General Election. If the parliamentary authorities can accept that, the other parties no longer have any excuse for failing to face up to reality."

The Scottish Government has set its budget for 2010-11 and written to the three main Westminster parties urging them not to change the Scottish settlement if an emergency budget is held after the election.

The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, responded by urging the Scottish Government to impose cuts sooner rather than later.

Scottish finance secretary John Swinney said: "The Scottish Parliament's statement reflects everything that the SNP government has said about the extent and severity of the cuts planned by Westminster."

He added: "It absolutely underlines the need to protect the things that matter, such as health and education, and cut the things we neither need nor want, such as Trident."

Scottish Parliament chief executive Paul Grice said the cuts were being made "in the light of the widely anticipated reductions in public sector budgets, arising from the UK's structural budget deficit".

A spokesman added: "We will work closely with the trade unions to try to avoid compulsory redundancies."

Scottish Labour deputy spokesman on finance David Whitton said: "In the current economic circumstances, every public body has to look at delivering its services in the most efficient way."

Liberal Democrats' finance spokesman, Jeremy Purvis, added: "We aren't prepared to take any lectures from the Tories on making Parliamentary cuts. Two of their MSPs, Alex Johnstone and John Lamont, want the full expenses of being an MSP as well as the expenses of being an MP."

BROWN … AND THE TORIES NEXT DOOR

GORDON Brown's difficulties with the neighbours are no longer confined to the falling-outs he has had with the Blairs and the Darlings in Downing Street.

The Prime Minister's neighbour in North Queensferry has put up a Conservative poster next door to the Browns.

One of David Cameron's "Time for Change" posters is now adorning the garden of Iain Watt, 65, a retired fund manager, and his wife Lynne.