Robin Hood Reeves

>> Scotland gets £3.5bn budget boost as Reeves launches tax raids on big business & wealthy >> Working people escape cash pain as government raises £40bn to plug black hole left by Tories

- PAUL HUTCHEON

SCOTLAND will get a £3.4billion Budget boost after Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves launched a tax raid on big business and the super-rich.

Schools, hospitals and other public services in Scotland will get the extra cash next year after Reeves - the first woman to deliver a UK Budget called time on 14 years of Tory cuts.

Reeves declared that Labour would "invest, invest, invest" to get Britain's economy moving.

The biggest element of the unprecedented £40billion tax hike was a £25billion rise for firms by increasing employers' national insurance contributions.

She also put up rates of capital gains tax and closed loopholes from inheritance tax. Private jets, school fees and energy firm profits were all targeted in a bid to close a financial black hole and raise extra cash.

Billions were also raised by increasing duty on wine and spirits and clamping down on the rich declaring themselves "non-dom" to avoid tax while living overseas.

Reeves pointedly said Labour would not tax working people more and she announced a continuation of the freeze on fuel duty.

Last night the first Labour Budget in a generation was praised for ending 14 years of Tory austerity.

Labour Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said: "This is a historic Budget for Scotland that chooses investment over decline and delivers on the promise that there would be no return to austerity."

The Chancellor promised "more pounds in people's pockets" as she was cheered by fellow Labour MPs.