UK household contributions ‘not that different from Scotland’s’

RUTH Davidson’s claim that only 12 per cent of Scottish households contribute more through taxes than they receive through benefits came under further attack yesterday.

The SNP said the Scottish Tory leader had made a “catastrophic error of judgment” after the analysis she used to produce the figure was re-run for the UK as a whole.

The SNP asked the Scottish Parliament Information Centre to apply the same mathematical model as used by the Conservatives to look at the UK.

The results for the UK as a whole came to 13 per cent, a figure the SNP claimed showed Scotland was not the “nation of spongers” the Tories had tried to portray it as. SNP MSP Jamie Hepburn, deputy convener of Holyrood’s welfare reform committee, said: “What she didn’t tell the Tory faithful was that the figures she published for Scotland are actually comparable with the rest of the UK.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “We are grateful the SNP has confirmed our sums and confirmed it is more of a problem in Scotland than it is across the UK.”