Exclusive:SNP minister blasted UK Government communication despite cancelling meeting with Labour minister

A senior SNP minister claimed it had been “very difficult to establish” communicate with the UK Government despite cancelling a meeting with a Labour minister just days before.

Housing Secretary Mairi McAllan complained that her Government had been “calling for meetings” ahead of Wednesday’s Budget.

This was despite the MSP cancelling a face-to-face meeting with Labour energy minister Martin McCluskey on Thursday morning just hours before it was due to take place. The pair had also already met twice since September.

Housing Secretary Màiri McAllan | Jane Barlow/Press Association

A source said: “Mairi McAllan says communication has been difficult to establish over the budget, but she has had multiple meetings with the UK Government on budget issues in her brief and as recently as this week she cancelled a ministerial meeting where the budget would have been discussed.”

A Labour source added: “We all know that the SNP plays fast and loose with the truth but this is a new low for the Housing Minister. “

McAllan had told the BBC’s Sunday Show: “I have to say, though, communication has been very difficult to establish over this most important Budget process.

“We have been calling for meetings, not least when the Chancellor decided to fly a kite on income tax and then seemed to retract from. it. It's very chaotic. We need certainty.

“Just last week, the First Minister was in London, and neither the Prime Minister nor the Chancellor could make time to meet the leader of Scotland to discuss the implications of the Budget for Scotland.

“It's completely unacceptable. I'm afraid the UK's approach to this budget has been characteristic of the chaos and incoherence that we have come to know of this Labour Government.”

The UK Government’s Budget takes place in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon.

Ms McAllan said: “The fact that neither the Prime Minister nor the Chancellor could take the time to meet with the First Minister during his visit to London last week demonstrates my point about lack of engagement with the Scottish Government pre budget.

“Scottish Ministers have been clear the UK Budget process has been chaotic and mired in damaging uncertainty. Given the limited time to consider the implications of any major policy changes between the UK Budget and the Scottish Budget on 13 January, this lack of engagement is a particular concern.”