by Our Industrial Reporter @TrinderMatt

SCOTTISH LABOUR accused the SNP and Tories of “blaming each other for their collective failures” today.  

The party blasted the Scottish government for “failing to value public-sector workers” and said Westminster had “presided over a massive transfer of wealth to top earners.”

The intervention came after SNP Deputy First Minister John Swinney warned that further cuts to public services are inevitable without extra funding for public-sector pay deals. 

In a letter to Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, the MSP for Perthshire North outlined concerns that last year’s Spending Review did not take into account the level of wage increases recently proposed by independent pay review bodies.

Mr Swinney, who has taken on the Scottish government’s finance and economy portfolio while Kate Forbes is on maternity leave, also said the review did not consider the wider effects of rising inflation, which is now at a 40-year high. 

He wrote: “The reduction in spending power across public-sector budgets is deeply worrying for our public services. 

“Given our fixed budgets, our restricted borrowing powers and the inability to change tax policy in year, I would urge you to consider appropriate funding for public-sector pay.”

A Tory Westminster government spokesperson claimed that it had provided Scotland with a “record £41 billion per year for the next three years, the highest Spending Review settlement since devolution.”

But Scottish Labour’s finance spokesman Daniel Johnson said it “isn’t acceptable for Scotland’s two governments to simply try and blame one another for their collective failures. Scotland needs a fresh start with Labour.” 

STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said that workers must not be “caught in a constitutional crossfire during this cost-of-living emergency.”

She told the Morning Star: “The Scottish government can use the powers of the Parliament to raise further revenue to, in part, meet our demands on public-sector pay.

“Simultaneously, the UK government cannot hide behind devolution. Soaring energy prices, economic self-destruction and rampant inflation are all squarely at the Tory UK government’s door.

“Workers are not expendable cannon fodder while politicians bicker. The STUC, alongside community groups across the country, are taking matters into our own hands.

“If government continues to be posted missing, we’ll mobilise even further and secure the vital assistance people across Scotland need just to afford the basic necessities.”