Scotland news – live: Boris Johnson’s trip to bolster union overshadowed as Rees-Mogg calls Sturgeon ‘Moanalot’

All Scottish taxpayers will pay slightly less this year than last year, finance secretary Kate Forbes has said.

Scotland’s tax band system will remain unchanged, according to Ms Forbes’ budget announcement to the Scottish Parliament.

The starter, basic and higher bands of tax will all rise by inflation, with the top rate frozen at £150,000.

“This will see all Scottish taxpayers pay slightly less income tax next year than they will this year based on their current income,” she said.

“In addition to this, a majority will continue to pay less income tax than if they lived in other parts of the UK.”

Scotland’s finance secretary has announced an extension to business support to cope with coronavirus.

Kate Forbes said the strategic framework business fund, which provides grants based on restrictions put on businesses, will continue beyond this financial year, provided funding is forthcoming from the UK government.

Grants being paid to businesses in February will also be paid at the maximum level, regardless of the level of restrictions on firms.

Councils will also see an increase in funding, with discretionary funding doubling to £60m, and a further £200m to compensate councils for a loss of income due to the pandemic.

Boris Johnson met Army troops setting up a vaccination centre on his visit to Scotland.

The prime minister bumped elbows to greet soldiers at the site in Castlemilk, Glasgow.

He later spoke to members of the military as he was shown around the centre.

Downing Street has defended Boris Johnson’s decision to visit Scotland after Nicola Sturgeon questioned whether it was an essential journey during the current state of lockdowns.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “It is a fundamental part of the prime minister’s job to go out and see businesses and communities and people.

“These are Covid-related visits. You’ve seen the prime minister do a number of them over the past few weeks.

“It is obviously important that he is continuing to meet and see those who are on the front line in terms of those who are providing tests, in terms of those who are working so hard to deliver the vaccination plan.”

The SNP have shared tweet juxtaposing an image of Boris Johnson getting off a plane as he arrives in Scotland with the government’s coronavirus slogan: “Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.”

Scotland’s R number has dropped below one as the country has made “progress in suppressing the virus,” Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Speaking ahead of First Minister’s Questions, Ms Sturgeon told MSPs: “That is not unexpected given the declining cases that we have seen recently but it is very welcome and it provides further evidence that the lockdown restrictions are working.

“That said, case numbers remain very high and our NHS remains under severe pressure.

“The number of people in hospital with Covid-19, for example, is still approximately 30 per cent higher than at the peak last spring, although we are starting to see a welcome stabilisation in those figures.”

Prime minister Boris Johnson has been looking around the Lighthouse Laboratory, used for processing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) samples for coronavirus, during a visit to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in Glasgow this morning.

SNP Commons spokesman Tommy Sheppard has said Boris Johnson is “more than capable of patronising us from his office in Whitehall”, as the prime minister visits Scotland today.

He told MPs: “I would like to ask for a debate on the role of government ministers and the prime minister in particular in setting an example by following the rules which they make for others during the lockdown.

“I know of course that every time the prime minister opens his mouth on the subject, his ill-informed views drive support for Scottish independence upwards and I know also that his stage-managed visits to selected Scottish supporters make the SNP’s case for it.

“So in normal circumstances, he would be most welcome, but these are not normal circumstances. We are telling millions of people not to leave their homes and only to make essential journeys.

“The prime minister is more than capable of patronising us from his office in Whitehall. So what exactly is so essential about his thousand mile-round trip to Livingston today?

“This gallivanting is a blatant piece of electioneering while most are focused on fighting Covid. But the real tragedy is that his actions will undermine the public health message which we all need to succeed.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg has branded Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon “Moanalot” following her comments that Boris Johnson’s trip to Scotland is not an essential journey.

He told the Commons: “Well, I used to think that Moanalot was a fictional character, but it turns out it’s actually the first minister of Scotland.

“All Ms Sturgeon can ever do is moan a lot. She moans when distinguished royal personages visit Scotland, she moans when the prime minister visits Scotland, people doing their duty, doing their job.

“And the visit to Livingston is something we should be proud of as a nation, visiting a vaccine factory, a factory that has made enormous strides to develop, produce a vaccine that is waiting approval to help in the fight against Covid.

“The prime minister is doing his job and ‘Moanalot’ will have something to moan about in early February when (Alex) Salmond gives evidence to a committee of inquiry in the Scottish parliament and we find out all that is going on up north to the disadvantage of the Scottish people led by a hopeless administration.”

The prime minister will use his visit today to argue the Union has been integral in tackling the pandemic – administering the Covid-19 vaccine, providing coronavirus testing and giving economic support.

His visit comes days after the SNP unveiled its roadmap to independence.

The party has said that should there be a pro-independence majority elected in May’s Holyrood election, it will announce plans to hold another referendum even if Westminster again denies permission, and dare the UK government to challenge it in court.