The Scottish Conservatives have been accused of "hypocrisy" for supporting Liz Truss's tax cuts for the wealthy, despite several MSPs refusing to vote for her as leader. A group of prominent Tories endorsed Rishi Sunak's leadership campaign - which promised a focus on tackling inflation - before quickly embracing the new Prime Minister after the former Chancellor lost earlier this month.
Sunak previously warned that his opponent's plan to reduce income tax for the wealthiest and reverse a National Insurance rise would spook the international markets and risk a run on the pound. Sterling this week plunged to a 40-year low against the dollar while the cost of UK Government borrowing rocketed.
Liz Smith, Scottish Conservatives' finance spokeswoman, was among at least 10 MSPs to back Sunak over Truss. Party leader Douglas Ross refused to publicly endorse either candidate.
Writing in a London-based newspaper in August, a group of MSPs played up Sunak's electability - which they claimed would stop a deal between the SNP and Labour at Westminster. But Smith has now embraced the shock economic tactics unveiled by Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, last week.
In a video shared before the pound crashed, she said: "It is very clear already the business community has made a positive response to the Chancellor's mini-budget, particularly in terms of policies designed for a low-tax and high-growth economy.
"But that's in contrast to what is happening in Scotland - where Scotland has been the highest-taxed part of the UK, but has also suffered lower growth rates. The message from business is for the SNP to match that agenda."
SNP MSP Rona Mackay said: "The hypocrisy of the Scots Tories really is quite breath-taking. They really do make a great case for Scottish independence with their shapeshifting double standards when it comes to supporting disastrous Westminster policies.
"Their finance spokesperson Liz Smith is leading the chorus defending Liz Truss’s budget when Smith was a self-proclaimed Sunak supporter just last month. Sunak condemned Truss’s economic plans as dangerous fantasy and his predictions of doom have proved scarily accurate - the economy is in meltdown.
"Now, Liz Smith is choosing to torch her own credibility by backing Truss's disastrous budget. Is she blind to the damage it has done? And she is not alone. Fellow Sunak supporters Jackson Carlaw, John Lamont and Jeremy Balfour are all doing the same.
"Even Douglas Ross – who is so severely lacking in leadership qualities he chickened out of choosing between Truss and Sunak – has demanded tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and do nothing to protect lower-earning households.
“You really have to question the motivation and the morality of demanding the SNP Scottish Government copy Truss’s catastrophe. If the Scots Tories had even a vague acquaintance with financial acumen they would be demanding their UK bosses reverse these policies instead of asking they be extended to Scotland, too."
A Scottish Conservatives spokesman said: "It is important that that the party comes together following the leadership election and delivers on the priorities of the British people.
"The UK Government have taken a series of measures to help people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis and announced plans to accelerate a cut in the basic rate of income tax. It is imperative the SNP pass on some of the decisions the UK Government have taken otherwise our tax gap will only widen further with the rest of the UK."
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