Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget “will go down as one of the worst financial interventions in modern history”, the Westminster leader of the Scottish National Party has said.
Speaking on the first day of the party’s conference in Aberdeen, Ian Blackford took aim at the pair over the economic consequences of their “fiscal event”. “Just weeks into their new roles, the disastrous duo of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have crashed the economy, sent the pound plummeting, put pension funds at risk and caused chaos for policyholders mortgages,” Blackford said.
He told his party conference that Scotland should not be “chained to the fall of Westminster”. “What used to be ‘fairy tale economics’, which used to bribe Conservative members’ votes in the summer, has become everyone else’s nightmare this autumn and winter.
“The truth is that the new Prime Minister and her new Chancellor have made the worst first impression in the history of UK politics. Because the inequity and incompetence of this budget will go down as one of the worst financial interventions ever modern history”.
In his address to members, the MP challenged Tory rebels to stand by his party “in stopping any cuts to benefits in real terms and any return to austerity”. He also attacked Labour, describing Keir Starmer’s party as a “Brexit-supporting, democracy-denying, Tory-enabling party”.
Invoking the memory of Ian Hamilton KC, one of the group who stole the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey and took it to Scotland in 1950, who died before the conference, Blackford said the SNP had a “clear purpose and a clear path.” .
“Ian Hamilton brought home the stone of destiny,” he said. “My purpose, friends, is to get our SNP MPs out of the gates of Westminster for the last time and back home to our independent nation.
“For Ian Hamilton, for all those who have gone before, for those of us in Scotland today, but most importantly for future generations: let’s finish the job, finish the journey and finally finish Westminster’s control for good “.
SNP deputy leader Keith Brown also hit out at the UK government, saying Truss is “singularly unfit for the job”. “The chaos she has created is no surprise – the only people who believed she was fit for No 10 were the few thousand Tory members who put her there,” he said.
In the only announcement of the first day, Brown told the audience the party would create its own “broadcasting platform” as he launched a podcast called Scotland’s Voices.
A UK Government spokesman said: “Our single priority is to secure and drive economic growth for people and their families – delivering jobs, investment and energy security across the UK.
“People across Scotland want the two governments to work together on the issues that matter to them and their families, not to talk about another independence referendum.”
