NICOLA Sturgeon has today mocked Boris Johnson for his “miserly” one per cent pay rise for NHS staff in England after proposing a four per cent hike for Scottish health workers.
Scotland’s First Minister has been hit with a backlash after her announcement, with her critics branding the move as a blatant giveaway as the Scottish election campaign official starts.
Ms Sturgeon said this afternoon that “in this election we can build a country fit for the heroes who have kept us going’ during the pandemic.”
The SNP leader’s promise has sparked a furious outcry from Tory MP’s over the UK’s funding arrangement.
Conservative ministers claimed that Sturgeon would never be able to afford the move if Scotland were to succeed in becoming independent.
They said the timing of the announcement was “egregious” and amounted to a “pre-election inducement to vote for the SNP”.
Tory MPs added that while Ms Sturgeon “moans and groans” about the UK as part of her independence drive “it is only because of the United Kingdom that she can give more money to nurses”.
Ministers believe that she was only able to make the pledge because of the “unfair” Barnett Formula, used by the UK Government to decide funding for the home nations.
It helps those in Whitehall to figure out how much money should be given to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales when it decides to spend more or less on something in England.
Official statistics published last year showed public spending per person north of the border was almost £2,000 more than the UK average.
More than 154,000 NHS Scotland staff are to be offered the hike of at least four per cent, with the move benefitting employees with contracts under the Agenda for Change system.
It will mean that medical staff on the lowest pay point could get a 5.4 per cent increase.
Staff on pay bands 1 to 7 would receive at least a 4 per cent pay rise compared with 2020/21, with workers earning less than £25,000 in 2020/21 guaranteed a minimum increase of more than £1,000 in 2021/22.
Figures published in August last year showed that public sector expenditure in Scotland increased by just over three per cent to £81billion, including both UK and Scottish government spending.
That was equivalent to £14,829 being spent on public services per person in Scotland, some £1,633 per person greater than the UK average.
Tory MP Peter Bone said Ms Sturgeon’s NHS pay pledge is a “practical example” of the “injustice” of the current Barnett Formula.
He told MailOnline: “There is real concern in my constituency because in the East Midlands we get thousands of pounds less per head of population spent on us compared to Scotland and we pay the same taxes.
“My constituents, not unreasonably, say why is it that Scotland gets all this extra money on public expenditure and we don’t?
“This is a practical example of where the injustice comes. If we had an even spread of public expenditure, we could pay nurses more money across the whole of the United Kingdom.
“But this unfair system where Scotland gets extra money gives them an advantage, my constituents just don’t see the basis for it.
“I find it very difficult when Sturgeon moans and groans about the United Kingdom – it is only because of the United Kingdom that she can give more money to nurses.”
The Gers report revealed that Scotland’s fiscal deficit had grown to 8.6 per cent of GDP in the 2019/2020 financial year and the government spent £15.1billion more than what was received in revenues.
It means that the deficit has increased from 7.4 per cent the previous year, while the UK’s deficit stood at 2.5 per cent up from 1.9 per cent.
Another Tory MP said that “Scotland does extremely well out of the Barnett Formula” and public spending levels would fall if the country was independent.
They added: “The timing is egregious. It has been done in the immediate run up to the Scottish elections and before purdah starts.
“The optics of it are really very bad. I think it does look as if the Scottish government are putting the money in as a pre-election inducement to vote for the SNP.”
“The fact that the Scottish exchequer, if there ever were one, could never possibly afford to fund public services at the current rate if Scotland were to be independent, wouldn’t enter the equation. It would be used for short term political gain.”
Scottish Tories have described the deficit figures as a “hammer blow” to Sturgeon’s plans to make Scotland independent.
At the time she insisted that the numbers were a “reflection of Scotland’s fiscal position in the United Kingdom, not a reflection of how Scotland would fare as an independent country”.
Speaking as election campaigning began today, Ms Sturgeon said that “politics is about choices and the SNP chooses to back our NHS” as she took aim at Boris Johnson.
The Scottish First Minister said: “In this election we can build a country fit for the heroes who have kept us going every day through the pandemic.
“We have to do more than clap for the people who look after us – we should give them fair pay for the work they do. That starts with a fair deal for our NHS staff.
“The Tories’ miserly one per cent pay offer south of the border shows that they have the wrong priorities – people will no doubt wonder how they can find the money to massively increase their stockpile of nuclear weapons or build a bridge to Northern Ireland but refuse to find the money to properly reward those who were at the frontline of the pandemic.”
Union bosses believe that the announcement should “shame” the UK government into hiking up their NHS pay rise, with Unison saying the move “shows where there’s a political will there’s most definitely a way”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson this morning hinted that nurses in England may get a pay rise above the one per cent currently being offered by the Government.
He said: “We have asked the public sector pay review body to look at what more can be done for nurses, in particular, exceptionally.”
Sturgeon’s four per cent announcement comes after NHS workers in Scotland also received a one-off £500 payment from the Scottish Government as a thank you for their work during the coronavirus pandemic.
