'HE may not like to admit it, but the SNP’s Derek Mackay is the luckiest Finance Minister in the history of devolution. Not only does he have an unprecedented range of choices over tax and spend, following the full devolution of Income Tax in April, but he also has more money in total than any of his predecessors.

It has become an article of faith for the SNP in recent years that the Scottish Government’s budget has been the victim of “Westminster austerity” or “Tory cuts” with claims that “Scotland’s budget” has been cut by the UK Conservative Government by a cumulative total of over 9% in the decade since 2010. Unfortunately for the SNP, their own budget documents tell a different story. The Scottish Parliament’s independent Financial Scrutiny Unit has assessed that the budget for 2017-18 will be up by £501 million in real terms as against the current year, thanks to decisions taken at Westminster. Derek Mackay was able to confirm to me that he accepts that this was the case. Whatever else is going on, even the SNP accept that they will have a cool half a billion pounds extra to spend next year that they did not have in the current year.

But the Finance Secretary went on to claim that this had to be set against a context of overall budget cuts. Unfortunately for him, this is not what his own budget document says.

It is perfectly clear from page 169 of the budget documentation that the total Scottish Government budget has been on an upward trajectory since 2010-11. The total out-turn for 2010-11 was £34.2 billion. This dipped a little in subsequent years, but came back up from 2013, and the figure for the draft budget for 2017-18 is £37.9 billion – a substantial increase.

Astonishingly, Derek Mackay appeared not to recognise his own figures when challenged on them. When, at the Finance Committee, I quoted to him these very figures from his own publication, he was left floundering. It is hard to imagine his predecessor John Swinney coming across as so incapable.

What is perfectly clear is that when the SNP are quoting their figure of 9% cuts, they are referring to only one element of their overall budget, that is Fiscal Revenue DEL (Discretionary Expenditure Limit).

So Derek Mackay’s budget, even if he doesn’t want to admit it, is higher than any of his predecessors’ in the history of devolution. He is indeed the luckiest Finance Secretary that the Scottish Parliament has ever had.

It is time now for the SNP to drop their inaccurate mantra about “Tory cuts”, which have now been blown out of the water by their own Budget papers.

As ever I welcome the feedback Murdo.Fraser.msp@parliament.scot and 01738 553 990.'