NORTH Ayrshire’s ruling Labour group have hit out at the SNP government in Holyrood, claiming they have quadrupled cuts from the Tories in Westminster.

In a new report by the Accounts Commission, Labour say that the SNP in Edinburgh have cut council budgets by four times greater than the Tories have cut their budget.

The report states that between 2013/14 and 2017/18, funding from the Scottish Government to local government decreased at a faster rate, 6.92 per cent, than the Scottish Government revenue budget at 1.65 per cent. In 2017/18, council budgets were cut by 2.3 per cent in real terms by the Scottish Government, taking the cuts to North Ayrshire Council’s budgets to around £90million.

Councillor Joe Cullinane, Leader of North Ayrshire Council, said: “This report highlights the disproportionate cuts experienced by Scotland’s councils.

Nicola Sturgeon repeatedly claims that local government has been treated “fairly” by her Government yet the Accounts Commission make it clear that rather than challenging Tory austerity the SNP Government have chosen to dump it on councils by quadrupling Tory cuts.

“After eight years of austerity local services cannot cope with more council cuts. Enough is enough – the SNP Government need to use the powers of the Scottish Parliament in their budget later this month to end the cuts and properly fund councils. A failure to do so will have a negative impact on jobs and the services that local communities rely on."

The SNP’s Leader at North Ayrshire Council Marie Burns hit back: “The Scottish Government has spent millions of pounds mitigating Tory austerity for the last eight years.

“ Only last week Richard Leonard was calling for them to find more money to mitigate the Tories two child benefit cap while Labour in London have said that they don’t plan to reverse the Tory tax cut.

“They would have more credibility if they stopped blaming the SNP for austerity and supported Scotland having the powers and freedom to make our own decisions and get rid of the Tories once and for all.”