The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader has told The Herald he ‘cannot see any circumstance’ his party would support a Scottish budget with any spending on Independence.

Alex Cole-Hamilton has also said he would not support the Scottish Budget if it includes the National Care Service Bill, adding “there are still big gaps and barriers to us coming on board.” 

Mr Cole-Hamilton has said he has had one meeting and “more to come” with the Scottish Government over their budget, adding his party aims to seek “common ground wherever we can".

However, Mr Cole-Hamilton spelled out potential red lines for the Scottish Liberal Democrats when it came to backing the Scottish Government's spending plans. 

Speaking exclusively to The Herald, Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “The public rendered a judgment of the SNP on the 4th of July that they are not willing to put up with the division caused by independence and as such there shouldn't be any spending or parliamentary time on the constitution in any way."

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Last year, a freedom of information request from Scotland in Union revealed the Scottish Government has spent an estimated £3.5million on independence since 2021. 

The spending includes the salaries of civil servants working for the "constitutional futures division" and the unsuccessful 2022 legal challenge on whether Holyrood had the right to call a second independence referendum. 

After the UK General Election this year where the SNP won just 9 seats, down from 48 in 2019, the First Minister John Swinney acknowledged that his party had “failed to convince people of the urgency of independence".

Asked if independence spending would be a red line for his party in supporting the budget, Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “I can’t see any circumstances where we would support any spending on what the public has decided is a fool’s errand in terms of the future of the constitution.” 

Speaking to The Herald, Mr Cole-Hamilton also said the inclusion of the National Care Service bill would be a “barrier” for Scottish Liberal Democrat support of the budget. 

The SNP’s National Care Service bill aims to transfer responsibility for social care away from councils to a new national body. However, all opposition parties now do not support the plans and this could result in the Scottish Government being unable to pass the bill, despite £30m already being spent on the plans.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “They have lost the dressing room on the National Care Service. The Greens were the last friends they had on it and any hope of it going through parliament now is sunk so why it would still represent a line in their budget I do not know. 

“We are not going to back a budget which contains provision for something that I don’t think is actually going to make it through parliament and if it did it would just represent a vast and unnecessary bureaucracy.”

Mr Cole-Hamilton has not ruled out a deal being struck with the Scottish Government as he pointed to the 2021 SNP budget which his party supported after there was an investment of £120 million in mental health support. 

Other asks from the Liberal Democrats include more local government funding, mental health funding, addressing the lack of affordable housing and provisions for long Covid. 

The Scottish Budget will be announced on December 4 and it is understood the Scottish Government is in talks with all opposition parties. The First Minister has said he is looking at a range of options for the Scottish Budget.  A Scottish Government official said the First Minister and Finance Minister are “absolutely committed” to securing support for the budget which they will need to do as a minority government  in order to pass the spending plans through parliament. 

Mr Cole-Hamilton’s comments come ahead of the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference in Perth next weekend. The party leader said he was “very excited” to address an optimistic crowd of supporters. 

“We’ve just had the best election we’ve had in a century, in fact, better. We blew the doors off.” Mr Cole-Hamilton said, “In Scotland, people forget that the boundary changes were not kind to us. We were starting from a notional base of two MPs so we trebled our hold of seats, we overtook the conservatives in terms of seats returned to Westminster, we came in touching distance of the SNP and viewed from space we represent more geographical area than even the might of the Scottish Labour party.” 

At their conference next weekend, the Scottish Liberal Democrats will discuss a range of issues with their members such as the winter fuel payment, a debate around public smoking and mechanisms around ensuring gender balance within the party.