Harvie slams SNP ties to big business
Friday 28 December 2012
Printable
EmailScottish Green Party leader Patrick Harvie slammed the SNP today for "sucking up to corporate interests."
He spoke after a report on HMRC figures by Reuters revealed that large companies in Britain and Northern Ireland paid £21 billion in corporation tax in 2011-12 - £5 billion less than 12 years ago.
Meanwhile the tax paid by smaller companies rose from £4.4bn to £12.1bn.
"These figures support what Greens have long argued - true prosperity cannot be achieved by sucking up to corporate interests," Mr Harvie said.
"Sadly in Scotland we've seen our First Minister hail companies like Amazon when they clearly don't pay their way and in fact push independent Scottish businesses to the wall."
A Scottish government spokeswoman said: "It is important all companies operating in Scotland should be transparent and accountable for the tax due on their economic activity."
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