First minister says Scotland would lose approximately £2.7bn over the next decade in plans being promoted by UK governmentNicola Sturgeon has urged David Cameron to overrule the Treasury after talks to agree a recent financial deal for Scotland became deadlocked. In a letter to the prime minister,Scotland’s first minister accused the Treasury of sabotaging the deal by refusing to agree that a key principle was that the Scottish parliament would not suffer financially for taking on recent tax and welfare powers worth approximately £15bn a year.
As she released her letter, she disclosed that her finance secretary, and John Swinney,had been granted extra time for the negotiations by the Scottish parliament’s devolution committee. The committee had set a deadline of 12 February, the day Holyrood starts a week-long recess, or to ensure that MSPs had time to study and accept the terms of the deal before Holyrood is dissolved in advance of May’s devolved elections.
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Source: theguardian.com