The SNP manifesto is a dangerous throwback to the 80s

This isn’t the article I expected to write about the SNP manifesto. I was ready to praise Nicola Sturgeon’s political guile for producing a carbon copy of Labour’s programme.

After a full week to digest Labour’s offer, I fully expected an identikit policy programme, presented as a ‘hand of friendship’ from the SNP: part of the party’s lethal campaign to minimise the differences between itself and Labour; to prove to Scots that there is nothing to fear from switching to the SNP.

But it turns out that the programmes the two parties present are worlds’ apart: Labour’s is grounded in financial reality; the SNP’s is a fiscal fantasy, overflowing with unfunded spending commitments. In an election when even UKIP has a costed manifesto, the SNP’s prospectus is an insulting indulgence.

The party must be hoping that no one will notice, because it has tried to hide its expensive divergence from Labour behind a thin veneer of agreement.

The first page of policies contains pledges to back all the tax rises the Labour Party has already proposed:

‘the reintroduction of the 50 pence top tax rate, a tax on bankers’ bonuses, a bank levy, a mansion tax, a crackdown on tax avoidance, the abolition of ‘non-dom’ status and reversal of the married couple’s tax allowance’.

Lazy journalists may read no further. In which case they will be fundamentally overstating the proximity between the parties. The pages that follow reveal that the SNP plans to spend more, or tax less, to the tune of billions of pounds. The manifesto says the party would:

1. Retain winter fuel allowance for rich pensioners
2. Reinstate pension credit savings credit
3. Review increases to the State Pension Age beyond 66
4. Reject a 2-year freeze to child benefit
5. Reverse the creation of personal independence payment
6. Raise Carers Allowance to the level of Job Seeker’s Allowance
7. Offer 30 hours a week free childcare
8. Increase universal credit work allowance
9. Pay for the energy company renewables obligation through general taxation
10. Reduce employer National Insurance Contributions
11. Increase the Employment Allowance

Many of these policies may be laudable in principle, but the same was true of Labour’s spending commitments in the 1980s. Together they are not a serious programme for the UK, because the SNP has no plans for how to pay for them.

No doubt the party will argue it can afford it all, because it wants ‘an end to austerity’. But don’t think the SNP would create a magic money tree. Today’s manifesto also revealed that the SNP would only raise spending by 0.5% per year.

This is pretty much exactly the same increase we can expect from Labour, under its fiscal rules. The manifestos have revealed that Nicola Sturgeon’s overall approach is a lot closer to Ed Balls’ than Natalie Bennett’s, although all three would be at pains not to admit it.

Unlike the SNP, Labour has simply chosen to highlight that above inflation increases in some areas, will mean cuts elsewhere. Labour could end up spending every penny the SNP promises; but in the meantime it is seeking to burnish its credentials for fiscal responsibility.

Today we learnt that the SNP plans to barely raise total spending – while it also made commitments to boost NHS resources across the UK. So there is no money to pay for Nicola’s goody bag: the sums don’t add up.

This is not a plan for government. This morning the SNP proved it is a party of protest.

Andrew Harrop is General Secretary of the Fabian Society