John Swinney has been accused of leading an SNP government that now “flagrantly and habitually lies in parliament as a matter of course”.
The Scottish Conservatives have written to the First Minister demanding that he corrects the record on the “blatantly false claim” that the Nationalists have maintained their manifesto pledge to freeze income tax rates and bands.
Swinney’s fib comes on the back of the false and repeated assertion by himself and finance secretary Shona Robison that most Scots pay less income tax than they would if they lived south of the border.
It also comes in the wake of culture secretary Angus Robertson telling parliament that he’d never been asked to attend a board meeting at scandal-hit Historic Environment Scotland, when leaked emails showed that he had.
Shadow finance secretary Craig Hoy has now written to the First Minister accusing him of breaching the ministerial code over his income tax claims. He says this is part of a wider pattern of “cynical and bare-faced lying” by ministers.
Scottish Conservative shadow finance and local government secretary Craig Hoy MSP said: “John Swinney must think Scots are buttoned up the back. He’s repeatedly broken his party’s promise not to raise income tax, yet he’s incapable of telling the truth on it.
“He has brazenly misled Parliament and he is blatantly conning voters.
“Unless he’s had a sudden bout of amnesia, the First Minister should do the right thing and correct the record urgently.
“The last week demonstrates that he leads a government that flagrantly and habitually lies in parliament as a matter of course.
“SNP politicians have a long history of telling porkies, from dodgy stats about Scotland’s wind power capacity to independence and the ferries scandal, but their cynical and bare-faced lying has plumbed new depths.
“The First Minister’s ‘Honest John’ nickname is laughable. For the good of Scotland, he and his rotten SNP government need to be turfed out of office next year.”
Notes to editors
John Swinney wrongly claimed the SNP had stuck by their promise not to raise income tax. John Swinney said: “Presiding Officer we’ve maintained our manifesto commitments in relation to taxation”. In the SNP’s 2023-24 budgets and 2024-25 budgets they increased income tax (Meeting of the Scottish Parliament, 13 November 2025, 12.25.25, link; Scottish Income Tax Fact Sheet 2023-24, 19 December 2023, link).
Shona Robison repeated the claim that the majority of taxpayers in Scotland continue to pay less income tax than they would in the rest of the UK. Robison said: ‘I repeat that, as the Scottish Fiscal Commission has said, the majority of taxpayers pay less in Scotland than they would elsewhere in the UK.’ This is despite the Scottish Fiscal Commission estimating that this was not the case in the last two years. (Official report, 13 November 2025, link; Scottish Fiscal Commission, 11 November 2025, link).
Angus Robertson claimed he had never been invited to a Historic Environment Scotland board meeting, despite email evidence to the contrary. Robertson told Holyrood’s culture committee: ‘the direct answer to Mr Kerr’s question is that I have not attended a board meeting. I have not been invited to attend a board meeting.’ (Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, 6 November 2025, link; The Herald, 8 November 2025, link).