Commenting after the SNP ditched their flagship principle of Local Income Tax, Jeremy Purvis, Liberal Democrat Finance spokesperson in Scotland said:

“This is a gross betrayal of the people who voted for the SNP.

“Every day during the election they promised to scrap the Council Tax.

“Just like the abolition of student debt, the SNP have backed off a main plank of their manifesto without even publishing their Bill.

“The poorest people pay six times as much of their income as the richest in Council Tax. That is deeply unfair.

“The First Minister used to say that MSPs who wouldn’t scrap the council tax were not fit for office. He promised he would abolish it. Now he has dumped it without even publishing the Bill. It is a scandal.”

Ends.