SCOTTISH trade unionists yesterday issued warnings to politicians of all parties over devolution of economic powers to the Holyrood parliament following the No vote in the independence referendum.
Unison Scotland head of bargaining and campaigns Dave Watson said: “The biggest challenge is for Labour, whose fiscal plans were the weakest.”

Writing in the Sunday Times, Watson went on to say: “If the ‘change’ mantra is to be credible, Labour needs to be more radical in its approach to the commission.

“Without such change the much-quoted ‘slippery slope’ will become a cascade to independence.”

He also called for income tax should be fully devolved as “the starting point” and said National Insurance should be added.

Meanwhile Scottish TUC economist Stephen Boyd warned that many key economic powers were “off the table.”

“The job creating powers meme creates a false view of the process of economic development,” Boyd wrote on the STUC’s Better Way blog.

“There are likely to be constraints — not least borrowing limits — on Scotland’s ability to introduce expansionary fiscal policy under enhanced devolution,” he said.

Power over VAT, for example, “can’t be devolved to Scotland under EU rules.”