Millions of people and households paying price for Tory economic incompetence
With new reports showing poor economic performance, it is clear that the Tories have run out of ideas and cannot be trusted with our economy, say the Scottish Greens.
Commenting on the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics, the Scottish Greens economic spokesperson, Maggie Chapman MSP, said:
"The Tories are completely failing to deliver an economy that supports communities across the country.
"They are even failing on their own terms. They keep telling us about how important they believe growth to be and what they are doing to control inflation and interest rates. But at the same time, we are seeing skyrocketing mortgages, soaring prices in shops and an economy that is failing everyone but the very rich.
“Their model of the economy is clearly failing. The obsession with growth is not delivering for people across Scotland. Trickle-down economics does not work. They are out of ideas and clearly cannot be trusted with our economy.
"Like any other time that the Tories have been in power, it is tax rewards for their wealthy friends while millions of ordinary people and households are made to pay the price for their incompetence.
"Downing Street's answer is to blame everyone else and hide behind a bigoted and reactionary culture war. When the going gets tough they will find another minority group to punch down on and scapegoat.
"It's not good enough. Our economy has to work for people and planet. At the moment it is not.
"The UK Government has the power to transform our economy and people's lives. But rather than transforming our lives for the better and investing in a fairer and better recovery, they are making the vast majority of people poorer, unhealthier and unhappier.
"In Scotland, with policies like the Scottish Child Payment, free bus travel, tax reform, the expansion of the living wage and a benefits system that is in line with inflation, we are doing what we can within our limited powers.
"With the powers of a normal independent country we could do so much more. And we so desperately need to do so much more!”