EXCLUSIVE: Local authority papers suggest cash for Scottish School Milk Subsidy Scheme is not guaranteed in the future.
First Minister John Swinney has been dubbed the “milk snatcher” over funding risks to a scheme for primary school pupils. A document claims the SNP Government will not guarantee the cash for the milk programme amid a massive clampdown on spending.
Local authority papers say an agreement was struck to guarantee that the funding would be part of the council funding settlement from 2025/26 onwards. But the document says Government officials have since advised the funding will “have to go through usual Budget processes”. Top news stories today David Cameron also quickly U-turned in 2010 when news leaked of planned cuts to a free milk scheme. The row comes as John Swinney’s Government prepares to announce hundreds of millions of pounds of budget cuts in a statement on Tuesday.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole Hamilton said: “This milk scheme is vital to the health and wellbeing of our children. Cutting this scheme would echo the worst of Thatcherism and if it happens the First Minister will be known as ‘Swinney the milk swindler’.”
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