SNP snubs Treasury advice on cuts

THE Scottish National Party has snubbed help from Treasury experts, who have offered to advise the Scottish Government on how to make more savings during the recession.

Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy offered to lend Alex Salmond the Treasury's most able civil servants and private sector advisers after branding the SNP administration "the most inefficient in the UK".

Murphy's offer sparked a row between London and Edinburgh, which has further poisoned relations between the SNP and Labour.

Murphy said: "The Scottish Government's budget has doubled in a decade, but we do not have a government in Scotland which is double that of Donald Dewar's.

"The Scottish Government is the least efficient of all four UK governments as it has the lowest efficiency target of them all. If it hit similar targets to those the rest of the UK is chasing, it would be able to find the relevant efficiencies and be able to help real people through the global recession. It cannot be exempt from tightening its belt along with the rest of us."

Labour argues that SNP finance secretary John Swinney has pledged to make only 2% efficiency savings from Scotland's block grant. According to Murphy, that compares unfavourably with the 3% savings promised by Westminster, the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Labour's analysis is disputed by the SNP.

A spokesman for Swinney dismissed the Scottish Secretary's offer, saying:

"The very last people to advise Scotland about efficient government would be the very Treasury who have presided over a financial disaster, racked up £1.4 trillion of debt and whose forecasts aren't worth the paper they are written on.

"The Scottish Government has efficiency savings of 2% every year – 6% over the spending review period."

Meanwhile, the Conservatives last night claimed the UK Government is preparing to spend up to £4bn on management consultants over three years, despite Chancellor Alistair Darling's promise to cut public spending.