The SNP has officially disowned its own manifesto pledge not to increase taxes for people in Scotland.
The nationalists were invited to support a motion which quoted their 2016 manifesto word for word on the issue of “protecting those on low and middle incomes”.
But instead of backing the motion, the SNP voted it down in favour of its own amendment which made no mention of those individuals set to be hit hard by tax hikes in tomorrow’s budget.
Shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said SNP MSPs must now explain why they stood on a manifesto not to increase income tax, only to vote the other way today.
Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said:
“What we have seen here is the SNP voting in parliament against its very own manifesto pledge.
“The nationalists were offered the chance to back, word for word, the promise they made to the Scottish people in 2016.
“Instead, they have disowned that pledge, and signalled their intention to punish hard workers.
“The SNP MSPs who voted this way must explain why they stood on a manifesto to cut taxes when they had no intention of seeing that through in Holyrood.
“They’ve misled voters, and owe them a huge apology not just for hiking their taxes, but deceiving them too.”