Findlay makes £500 tax pledge to pensioners – Daily Business

Russell Findlay: ‘helping hard-pressed Scots’

Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay today promised to wipe £500 off pensioners’ tax bills as one of a number of policies to help ‘hard-pressed’ Scots.

Mr Findlay, who told the party faithful today that he feared the “living nightmare” of SNP leader John Swinney calling another independence referendum, has also promised income tax cuts and lower business rates.

He warned that an outright win for the nationalists would lead to “constitutional chaos” with Mr Swinney pushing his independence obsession at the expense of the public’s priorities, including the cost of living and fixing crumbling public services.

The Scottish Conservative leader said that helping struggling Scots should be the top issue in the election.

“When Sir Keir Starmer came into office, one of the first things he did was snatch Winter Fuel Payments from pensioners. Shameful,” said Mr Findlay.

“Pensioners who have worked hard and paid into the system having their money swiped by a left-wing millionaire lawyer.”

Under the policy, pensioners would be able to claim back the first £500 they pay in tax on their pension income. This figure would then be triple-locked, increasing in line with earnings, inflation or 2% – whichever figure is highest.

The pension income tax relief scheme is one of several tax-cutting pledges in the Scottish Conservative manifesto to ease household cost-of-living pressures and stimulate economic growth.

The fully costed manifesto outlines that the tax cuts would be funded by reductions in benefits spending and public sector bureaucracy.

“John Swinney has been crystal clear. He will use an SNP majority to press ahead with his plan to hold a second divisive referendum on breaking up our country,” said Mr Findlay.

“Already, he’s arrogantly predicting an outright victory on May 7 – a majority of Holyrood seats.

“Now he has gone a step further. He’s set the date for his independence referendum. He said 2028 is his ‘expectation’. 

“Can you imagine the living nightmare if John Swinney gets his majority and gets his way? We cannot allow him to plunge the next parliament into constitutional chaos.

“If we prevent an SNP majority, we can stop John Swinney from pressing ahead with his plans for a referendum. We can spend the next five years focused on the issues that matter to people.

“Every vote for the Scottish Conservatives on the peach-coloured ballot paper will help us stop the SNP.

“Ruth Davidson stopped an SNP majority in 2016, Douglas Ross stopped an SNP majority in 2021.

“In both of those elections, that’s because people across Scotland backed us with their peach ballot paper.

“We need to do it again.”

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