SCOTTISH Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf has demanded that the Treasury pay back £175 million taken from Scottish police and fire services.

The organisations became liable for VAT after merging from regional into national bodies in 2013 – though no other territorial police services in the UK had to pay.

The Scottish bodies paid £35m a year in the tax since being created, but former Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in 2017 they would be made exempt. As of yet, the Tories have failed to refund the £175m taken out of the budgets of the Scottish emergency services.

Speaking ahead of an election campaign event in Glasgow today, Yousaf said SNP MPs would push for the money to be repaid.

“A vote for the SNP offers an escape from Brexit and Tory austerity, and will put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands – not Boris Johnson’s.

“Under the SNP, police numbers are up by 1000, police officers have the best pay deal in the UK and recorded crime remains at one of the lowest levels ever seen.

“We’ve achieved all that despite the UK Government dipping their hands into the pockets of our emergency services – singling out Scottish police and fire services to unfairly face VAT bills.

“They eventually backed down – but have yet to repay the £175m they pocketed.

“SNP MPs will hold the next UK government to account and demand that they pay back that money to our police and fire services.”

The Justice Secretary also called for the next UK government to learn from the SNP’s approach to tackling crime and match Scotland’s police numbers per head.

“Boris Johnson’s pledge to recruit an extra 20,000 police officers in England and Wales doesn’t even cover the 21,000 the Tories have cut,” Yousaf added.

“If the UK Government is serious about tackling crime, they should follow the SNP’s lead and match our police numbers per head. Anything less is simply papering over the cracks caused by a decade of Tory austerity.”