Former adviser dismisses plans to cut Scottish business taxes

Labour has said Alex Salmond’s economic policies are “disintegrating” after a former economic adviser dismissed his plan to attract business to Scotland by cutting taxes.

Professor John Kay, who served on the First Minister’s Council of Economic Advisers during the last parliament, said Alex Salmond’s plan was a “non-starter” because the rest of the EU would block it. Labour finance spokesman Ken Macintosh said: “Only this week we learnt his plans for a separate Scotland would mean interest rates and borrowing levels would be set by a foreign country over which we would have no control.

“Now one of his former advisers is telling him what he should already know: his plans to cut corporation tax and remain a member of the EU are incompatible.”