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Salmond set for budget plan quiz SNP accused of 'breaching trust'
(about 6 hours later)
The first minister is expected to be quizzed on the SNP's first budget at Holyrood later. Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander has upped her attack on the SNP government by claiming it had breached the trust of the Scottish people.
Opposition leaders will use the parliament's weekly question time session to accuse Alex Salmond of breaking his election promises. She said its budget plans were a series of broken promises, while accusing first minister Alex Salmond of misleading parliament.
The Scottish government has said it has had to work within tight spending limits set by the UK Treasury. But Mr Salmond said he had a list of supportive comments from "the length and breadth of Scotland".
Finance Secretary John Swinney set out the SNP administration's spending plans at the parliament on Wednesday. The Tories and Lib Dems also claimed there were holes in the spending plans.
The measures he detailed included a plan for councils to be offered an extra £70m to freeze council tax bills next year. Key to the budget, announced on Wednesday, was a £70m offer to freeze council tax bills next year.
However, to pay for the extra spending that deal brings, tough choices have had to be made. He has sat there sneering and laughing at the way the people of Scotland have been cynically let down Wendy AlexanderScottish Labour leader
Mr Swinney's trimmed some budgets, increased targets for efficiency savings and delayed or abandoned key election pledges. Conservative leader Annabel Goldie said the statement had failed to give enough money for drug support, while the Liberal Democrats' Nicol Stephen claimed that funding for colleges and universities amounted to a cut.
Cuts in business rates are also being phased in but a promise to scrap student debt has been shelved. During question time at Holyrood, Ms Alexander claimed ministers had done away with pledges on grants for first-time house buyers, scrapping student debt, a 50% increase in nursery education, and annual climate change targets.
Rivals have claimed it is a budget of "broken promises". She told MSPs: "He has sat there sneering and laughing at the way the people of Scotland have been cynically let down.
The government blames a tighter than expected spending settlement from the Treasury and its lack of a Holyrood majority for the compromises it has made. "Time and time again, you have asserted in this place that you would keep your promises. You have not done so - parliament and the people have been misled."
"This is more than broken promises, it is a breach of trust," Ms Alexander went on to say.
'No cut'
Mr Salmond said that when the budget was announced on Wednesday, Ms Alexander looked gloomy at news of a deal with the local authority body Cosla, Labour's Iain Gray looked even gloomier when a reduction in business rates was announced and Andy Kerr, a former finance minister, looked "fit to burst".
"Since this is a footballing weekend in Scotland, when John Swinney was unveiling the budget, the SNP benches were over the moon - and the Labour benches were sick as parrots," he said."
Mr Stephen said the deal offered to Scotland's universities had left them to fall behind their competitors, stating that Universities Scotland was to get only £30m of the £160m it had asked for.
He asked the first minister: "Why, under his government, do universities get a cut next year, left to fall behind their competitors?
"Why has he chosen to give our universities and colleges less than he has chosen to give to the rest of his government?
"Why has he chosen to treat them so badly?"
Mr Salmond said there had been no cut, adding: "There have been increases in real terms for our universities and colleges."
He said the plans had been welcomed by the Association of Scotland's Colleges and by Scotland's colleges principal's forum.
Political leadership
"If our colleges and universities welcome the SNP budget, why doesn't the Liberal Democrats?"
Miss Goldie said that, before the election, the SNP had included £24m for drug rehabilitation in its spending plans, but said the budget had delivered a "virtual freeze" on funding.
"I had been encouraged to think that the first minister was committed to political leadership on our drugs abuse problem in Scotland.
"Can I ask the first minister on this issue, this crucial issue which scars Scotland, why on earth has he caved in?"
Mr Salmond insisted that, when spending across all departments was considered, funding for drugs would increase, adding: "Overall across the spending period there is going to be an increase of 13% above inflation when all budgets are taken into account."