Lack of recent meetings with Treasury an ‘issue of concern', says Swinney
A lack of recent meetings between the Scottish Government and the Treasury is an 'issue of concern', First Minister John Swinney has said ahead of the Chancellor's spending review.
Rachel Reeves will lay out her spending priorities on Wednesday, with funding increases expected for the NHS and education – which will result in greater cash for Scotland.
But speaking to the PA news agency in Glasgow on Monday, First Minister John Swinney said his Finance Secretary Shona Robison had not recently spoken to the Treasury about the Scottish Government's requests for the review.
'The Finance Secretary has had discussions with the Chief Secretary, but not recently,' he said.
'That's been an issue of concern to us that there hasn't been an ongoing dialogue.
'I raised our aspirations about the spending review with the Prime Minister when I met him a couple of weeks ago in London and have set out, particularly, the importance of the investment in public services and the necessity of that decision on the Acorn carbon capture and storage project, because that is crucial for us finding a way forward to address some of the challenges that we faced at the Grangemouth site.'
The Acorn project has been overlooked for funding by successive UK Governments, angering Scottish ministers.
As well as Acorn, Mr Swinney also urged the Chancellor to commit to lifting the two-child benefit cap.
'After all the year's of Conservative austerity, I want to see a decision to lift the two-child cap from the benefit system, which is forcing more and more families into poverty and children into poverty,' he said.
The Scottish Government has pledged to mitigate the impact of the two-child cap north of the border, but has consistently pushed for the policy to be scrapped at UK level.
The First Minister also pushed for a 'different approach on welfare reform', after the UK Government announced a £5 billion cut to benefits earlier this year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
18 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Revealed: The new Reform chairman who used to be a TV presenter. ANDREW PIERCE lifts the lid
A television presenter who made his name fronting a popular show about ghosts and the paranormal is to be unveiled tomorrow as Reform's new boss, the Mail can reveal. Dr David Bull, 56, who backs 'binning the burka', will replace Zia Yusuf whose resignation as chairman last Thursday threatened to plunge Nigel Farage 's party into chaos. The new chairman is a former hospital doctor who moved into broadcasting shortly after he qualified at London 's St Mary's Medical Hospital School in 1993. His most prominent presenting role was on paranormal reality TV show Most Haunted Live!. The openly gay Dr Bull, 56, follows the Scottish born Yusuf, 38, who is the son of Sri Lankan Muslims. 'I think we are ticking the right diversity boxes,' joked one senior Reform figure today. Last week, Yusuf, a multi-millionaire businessman, provoked uproar when he criticised Reform's newest MP Sarah Pochin for calling for a burka ban in the Commons at Prime Minister's Questions. The next day Yusuf, 38, unexpectedly quit to the relief of many of his senior colleagues who found him difficult to work with. Unlike Yusuf, the new Reform chairman is an advocate of banning the burka, which he regards as an 'anti-British symbol'. Farage hopes the Bull appointment will calm the frayed nerves of many party members coming, as it does, just three months after the resignation of the Reform MP Rupert Lowe. He quit in protest at Farage's 'dictatorial' style of leadership. When Yusuf resigned on Thursday he said he no longer believed that working for Reform to win power at the next election was 'a good use of my time'. Many Reform senior figures feared he would deliver a devastating post-resignation interview but, in a bizarre twist, he instead announced on Saturday he was rejoining Reform only 48 hours after he quit. He is being put in charge of Reform's 'Doge' team, which is modelled on the Department of Government Efficiency set up by US President Trump in the US. Asked today why he had resigned as chairman, Yusuf told the BBC: 'I've been working pretty much non-stop, virtually no days off. It is very difficult to keep going at that pace.' Yusuf alienated many party members with his abrupt manner and controlling style of management. Arron Banks, a founder of Leave EU who is a close friend of Mr Farage, said that Yusuf was a 'control freak' who was 'prone to changing his mind frequently'. One party source said: 'Yusuf's new role will keep him out of party HQ as he will be visiting the county councils which we now run across the country to try to cut out waste. It will be a better use of his talents and energies.' There had been speculation that Ann Widdecombe, 77, the redoubtable former Tory prisons minister who defected to Mr Farage's side in 2019, would be the new chairman. 'It's not Widdecombe even though she is very highly regarded,' said a source. Dr Bull, who is a presenter on the Rupert Murdoch channel Talk, is not wealthy like Yusuf, who netted £30 million from the sale of an upmarket concierge firm. Briefly a Brexit Party MEP, he is described by colleagues as collegiate and a team player. Before joining Farage's Brexit Party, Dr Bull was the Tory parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion when David Cameron was party leader. But he stood down in 2009 and headed up a policy review on sexual health. He published his first book, Cool And Celibate?: Sex And No Sex, arguing the benefits of abstinence for teenagers. A former anchor of the BBC current affairs programme Newsround, he presented Most Haunted Live! between 2002 and 2005. A Reform source said: ''He looks and sounds good and he's been out and proud for years so we have no worries about any skeletons in his closet.'
The Guardian
21 minutes ago
- The Guardian
What does the change to the winter fuel payment mean?
After months of speculation the government has announced that it will reinstate the winter fuel payment to most pensioners in England and Wales. Under the new rules, any pensioner with an income of up to £35,000 a year will be eligible for the full allowance, while anyone on more will have to pay back their share. The payment is worth £200 a year to households where both pensioners are aged under 80 years old, and £300 if there is a person aged 80 or over. A pensioner aged 85 who lives alone will get £300, as will a couple of the same age. The new system will mean these payments are made automatically to those receiving a state pension. There will be no need to claim the money. No. The threshold applies to individuals, not households. A couple who qualify for a £200-a-year payment will get £100 each. If one has an income of more than £35,000 a year and the other does not, the higher earner will have £100 clawed back while the other one is allowed to keep the money. In a couple where one person is aged 80, they will receive £200 and the other will receive £100. The person over 80 will repay £200 if their income is more than £35,000. This will create some quirks. A single pensioner, living alone, will repay the full £200 or £300 if their income is more than £35,000, while a couple with an income of £69,000 would keep all the money. Two households with the same incomes and one person aged over 80 could have to repay different sums depending on whether it is the older or younger person who receives more than £35,000. For most pensioners, money will be taken through the pensioner's tax code and applied to their income the next year. Those who already file a tax return for other reasons may find it is added to it, but it is not yet clear if that will be the case. The same is true when someone dies. The government says it will not make families do a return or pursue them for the winter fuel payment. However, if they have to do a return for someone who has died for other reasons, it is not clear if they will have to declare the payment. There is a potential for problems if someone retires part-way through a tax year and earns more than £35,000 because they are still getting their salary, then drops well below that the next year – they will be faced with repaying the payment when they are on a lower income. No. The new means-testing will take into account income only, not savings or the value of any property. A person with £1m in the bank would still qualify for the payment with an income less than £35,000. The Scottish government gives out a pension-age winter heating payment. Last winter this was restricted to only those people who qualified for one of a handful of benefits including pension credit. This will change next winter, and the payment will be given more widely. Northern Ireland has a winter fuel payment and seems likely to move in line with England and Wales.
The Independent
23 minutes ago
- The Independent
FTSE 100 dips while markets watch for US-China talks progress
Stocks in London closed mixed on Monday amid a fresh burst of mid-and-small cap M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activity, while the wider market watched as US- China trade talks resumed. The FTSE 100 index fell 5.63 points, 0.1%, at 8,832.28. The FTSE 250 ended up 128.63 points, 0.6%, at 21,285.91, and the AIM All-Share climbed 7.01 points, 0.9%, at 763.89. In Paris, the Cac 40 fell 0.2%, while Frankfurt's Dax 40 ended 0.5% lower. The pound was quoted at 1.36 dollars late on Monday afternoon in London, higher compared to 1.35 at the close on Friday. The euro stood at 1.142 dollars, higher against 1.139 on Friday. On London's FTSE 250, Spectris leapt 64% after receiving a more than £3.7 billion cash and shares bid from private equity firm Advent International LP. Should a firm offer be made, 'the board has carefully considered the proposal together with its advisers and concluded that the proposal is at a value that the board would be minded to recommend unanimously to Spectris shareholders', said Spectris. Meanwhile, Alphawave IP soared 19% as it agreed to a 2.4 billion dollars takeover from US semiconductor firm Qualcomm. The cash deal values the London-listed high-speed connectivity solutions firm's shares at 2.48 dollars each, or around 183 pence. 'Qualcomm's acquisition of Alphawave represents a significant milestone for us and an opportunity for our business to join forces with a respected industry leader and drive value to our customers,' said Alphawave chief executive Officer Tony Pialis. Charles Hall at Peel Hunt noted there have been 30 bids for UK companies at more than £100 million market value year-to-date, with a total value of £25 billion. At the same time there has been just one initial public offer offer year-to-date of more than £100 million, he pointed out. 'Companies in the UK seem to be far more attractive to acquirers than investors. The root cause is the consistent outflow of capital from domestic markets. If we want the UK equity market to thrive, an urgent rethink is required to ensure that UK capital backs UK companies,' Mr Hall said. 'The scale of M&A and lack of IPOs is resulting in a material reduction in the number of UK listed growth companies. It is essential that action is taken to ensure the health of the ecosystem and enable companies to grow, scale and stay in the UK. We believe this can be done through reform of pension funds, ISAs, and stamp duty,' Mr Hall added. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2%, the S&P 500 climbed 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite sat 0.3% higher at the time of the closing bell in London. After a round of talks in Geneva last month, the US and China will sit down at the negotiating table in London on Monday to attempt to preserve a fragile truce on trade, despite simmering tensions. US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and trade representative Jamieson Greer will lead the US delegation, President Donald Trump announced Friday. Chinese vice premier He Lifeng – who led Beijing's negotiating team in Geneva – will also lead the team in London, the foreign ministry announced at the weekend. On the FTSE 100, M&G rose 3.2% as UBS upgraded to 'buy', but WPP fell 2.8% after it said Mark Read will step down as chief executive officer at the end of 2025 after seven years leading the company. Mr Read has spent more than 30 years at the company and took on the role of CEO in September 2018, following the abrupt departure of founder Martin Sorrell. In London, shares in Cordel plunged 12% after it warned full-year revenue will be lower than forecast. The London-based company, which uses artificial intelligence to supply transport corridor analytics, expects to report revenue in the range of £4.7 million and £5.0 million for the financial year to June 30. It would represent growth of up to 12% from £4.4 million a year prior. But chief executive John Davis said it will be 'lower than forecast', despite the firm making 'excellent strategic progress' in the financial year. Broker Cavendish lowered its financial 2025 revenue forecast to £4.8 million from £6.2 million. Mr Davis said economic uncertainty, particularly in the US, has 'unfortunately led to protracted sales cycles and delayed revenue, which has impacted our normally strong second half revenue'. Elsewhere, Dunelm fell 3.9% after RBC Capital Markets downgraded to 'sector perform' from 'outperform'. 'We view Dunelm as a high quality business. It's cash generative, has executed well in recent years and expansion potential has stepped up. But we think this is now more reflected in its valuation,' the broker said in a research note. Meanwhile, Trustpilot slid 5.8% as Panmure Liberum slapped a 'sell' rating on the company. Analyst Sean Kealey thinks Trustpilot finds itself 'at the foothills of a complex multi-year' business transition. He argued that the current valuation assumes 'perfect execution' over a 'multi-decade time horizon despite near-term macro risks and medium-term business profile uncertainty.' The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Melrose Industries, up 16.80 pence at 484.60p, Spirax, up 190.00p at 5,940.00p, M&G, up 7.40p at 251.20p, JD Sports Fashion, up 2.04p at 82.60p, and Fresnillo, up 32.00p at 1,374.00p. The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were WPP, down 15.40p at 543.40p, Hiscox, down 33.00p at 1,318.00p, Aviva, down 11.80p at 615.00p, Marks & Spencer, down 6.90p at 359.80p and Haleon, down 7.40p at 397.80p.
