Scottish Conservative MP John Lamont urged the Scottish Government to adopt similar “radical” proposals following
Changes to income tax included in Friday’s mini-budget included a cut in the basic rate to 19p in the pound, as well as the scrapping of the top rate for those earning £150,000 a year or more.
Those measures do not apply in Scotland – where control over income tax rates and bands is devolved – but with SNP ministers having previously boasted that the system north of the border results in most people there paying less in tax than their UK counterparts, that situation will no longer apply.
Douglas McWilliams, a leading economist and deputy chairman of the Centre for Economics and Business Research told The Sunday Times that “it would be realistic to assume about 20% of top-rate taxpayers could move south” as a result of the changes announced by the UK Government.
Mr Lamont meanwhile told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show: “What I don’t want to see is Scotland being left behind while the rest of the UK powers ahead with this new, ambitious, radical plan set out by the Chancellor on Friday.”