Humza Yousaf has been warned that he only has himself to blame after he was forced to call an emergency cabinet meeting of the Scottish government because he has run out of Scotland’s money.
The SNP First Minister – dubbed “Hapless Humza” by his critics – and his Marxist Scottish Green coalition partners are complaining that they have been left with too little money from Westminster after Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement.
It means that they will have to hold a difficult meeting tonight to decide where and how to make cuts in their bloated £60billion budget.
But Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has told Express.co.uk that Yousaf and his leftwing government only have themselves to blame for making unfunded pay rise commitments to the public sector in Scotland to grab headlines and avoid strikes.
Mr Ross said: “They agreed all the additional pay increases within their budget, they can’t then complain that the UK Government should stump up for their negotiations.”
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According to reports, the SNP and Scottish Greens have left themselves with a budget black hole worth billions with the Scottish Budget due to be announced on December 19.
Instead of sorting out the problems earlier, Yousaf went to COP28 in Dubai to have his picture taken with world leaders and talk about climate change.
Mr Yousaf’s Deputy First Minister and Finance Secretary Shona Robison has claimed that the Autumn Statement by Mr Hunt last month was “a worst-case scenario” for Scotland because he decided to cut taxes.
She wants to freeze the council tax in Scotland and is complaining that new NHS money for England only translates as an extra £10.8million for Scotland.
However, critics point out that Scotland has the power to raise its own taxes instead of relying on Westminster.
But the massive unfunded pay deals with the public sector had already left a shortfall of £1billion this year for the Scottish Government.
The pay deals cost £1.75billion across the public sector in 2023/24 and are expected to be around £800million above the amount budgeted for.
Further unsustainable pay demands are expected in 2024/25.
At the time Mr Yousaf made a virtue of agreeing pay deals while strikes continued in England but it has left his government short of taxpayers’ money.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “There will be a further meeting of cabinet on Thursday this week to allow Ministers to continue their discussion on the Scottish budget.”
