Scottish budget approved by MSPs

by mudricky | February 4, 2009 at 12:18 pm

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After a week of talks MSP's have aproved the Scottish budget after it was rejected last week.

Labour voted with the Scottish Government after ministers agreed to an extra 7,800 apprenticeships next year, along with a summit for all those involved in providing apprenticeships.

That falls well short of Labour's original demands for 7,800 apprenticeships to be created every year for the next three years.

Other factors, such as a town centre regeneration fund and money for retraining unemployed people, were key reasons why others now backed the budget.

The spending plans were approved by 123 votes to two after Labour joined the Liberal Democrats in dropping their opposition and voting with the minority SNP administration.

Of the three parties who combined to vote down the 2009-10 Budget Bill last week, only the two Green MSPs rejected it a second time.

The passage of the Bill with support from nearly all sides of the Holyrood chamber marks a significant political victory for Mr Salmond, the First Minister, and his finance minister, John Swinney.

They were humiliated last week after being held to ransom by the Greens, who forced Mr Swinney to promise £33million for a free insulation scheme then voted down the Budget after deciding the pledge contained too many caveats.

But Mr Salmond used a public backlash against the rejection to win almost unanimous support for the plans the second time around with barely any changes.

The only major alteration is the allocation of £16million for 7,800 extra apprenticeships over the coming year, which persuaded Labour to back the Bill.

However, Labour was offered this deal before last week's vote but rejected it, saying they wanted three times that number.

Mr Swinney said public reaction to last week's rejection had "focused the minds" of Scotland's political leaders, resulting in the deal.