The Scottish Government has called for a wealth tax to be introduced to protect public services.

SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to “seriously examine” introducing wealth taxes to ensure further boosts to defence spending does not come at the expense of drastic cuts to public services.

Ms Robison was speaking on Wednesday after the Chancellor’s Spring Statement included almost £5 billion of controversial cuts to welfare, including to disabled people.

Shona Robison has called on the wealthy to be taxed to fund future defence spending | Jane Barlow/PA Wire

While the Finance Secretary welcomed Ms Reeves’s boost to defence spending of £2.2bn, she told MSPs that further “necessary” increased money for defence could not lead to further cuts to welfare, public services or other vital infrastructure projects.

Ms Robison accused the Labour government at Westminster of attempting to “balance the nation’s books on the backs of disabled people”, adding the proposed welfare cuts, estimated to push 250,00 people including 50,000 children across the UK, into poverty, was “nothing short of shameful”.

Highlighting Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s vow there would be no austerity under his party in government, Ms Robison claimed “the people of Scotland will not quickly forget that this promise has been shattered”.

The Finance Secretary told Holyrood the Scottish Government will “absolutely strain every sinew to protect disabled people” north of the Border from the social security cuts, but warned she was under no illusion about “how difficult that will be, given the scale of this”.

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Ms Robison pointed to Donald Trump’s incoming trade tariffs, warning Scotland’s “food and drink, engineering and advanced manufacturing” export sectors were “potentially at risk by the US President’s policies”. She warned the impending trade barriers put the Chancellor’s ambitions to grow the economy at risk.

Highlighting the strained global tensions, Ms Robison welcomed the UK government’s “sustained investment in building defence infrastructure and in supporting defence personnel”.

But she warned further spending on defence could not lead to more public service cuts, appealing to Ms Reeves to consider a wealth tax. A wealth tax could be applied to someone’s net worth or assets.

Ms Robison said: “I believe that to sustain this and other vital public investment that the UK government should seriously examine the role of wealth taxation to support these endeavours.

“Without exploring wealth taxation, there remains a danger that funding for necessary defence capabilities would come from yet further cuts to social security or public services or investment in other vital infrastructure.

“It could not be clearer that the UK government should ditch Trident and should instead invest in deepening conventional defence capabilities.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is boosting defence spending by £2.2bn (Picture: Dan Kitwood) | Getty Images

Speculation has emerged the Chancellor may be forced to increase taxation in the autumn, but Labour has not tabled a wealth tax. In January, The Scotsman revealed Scottish ministers were poised to ask Westminster for the power to introduce wealth taxes after next year’s Holyrood election.

Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson Michael Marra claimed the Chancellor was “currently engaged in a rescue mission for UK public services”.

He said: “In an increasingly volatile world, it is absolutely right the Chancellor has increase defence spending by £2.2bn this year. That will mean more jobs, more investment and more security for Scotland if a genuine partnership can be built between the Scottish and UK governments.

“The SNP claims to welcome that increase in defence spending, but it cannot do so with any credibility when they have opposed every single revenue-raising measure brought forward by the Chancellor.”

SNP demand for Rachel Reeves to tax the rich to stop further Scotland spending cuts

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