How will Sturgeon respond to Kwarteng’s budget?

Kwarteng’s £45 billion tax cuts will have given Nicola Sturgeon a headache. She has power over income tax and has indicated that she won’t replicate his cuts (especially for the best paid). Which means that Scots could end up paying hundreds of pounds more in income tax next year. Already, there is talk about Scottish tax exiles heading to London (with a particular focus on Edinburgh’s financial service industry.)

The Chartered Institute of Taxation has run the figures. If the 1p cut to the basic rate isn’t passed on in Scotland, anyone earning more than £14,732 will pay more tax than those in the rest of the UK. Those earning £30,000 will pay nearly £200 more each year. But the real difference comes from the biggest taxpayers: the top-rate earners on £150,000. They’d pay over £3,000 more in Scotland. At the extremes, those with a yearly income over one million would pay £54,000 more than their English counterparts.

All told, some 2.4