Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 27 March 2019.
I remind Mr Stewart of the answer that I just gave, which is that, overall, we will be giving councils a real-terms funding increase of 3.8 per cent. I also gently remind Mr Stewart that if we had followed his party’s tax plans, £500 million would have had to come out of public services—perhaps even out of the local government budget—so we will take no lessons from the Conservatives about how to marshal our budget. Instead, we will continue to focus on supporting local authorities and making sure that we work in partnership with them to deliver the outcomes that the people of Scotland deserve.