THE Scottish government budget has passed its first parliamentary test with a little help from the Greens, Lib Dems and Alba.

Moving the £64 billion budget, Finance Secretary Shona Robison told MSPs: “At the start of the year, the First Minister said there was nothing in Scotland that cannot be fixed by what is right about Scotland.

“This budget is about putting the resources in place to do just that.”

Ms Robison made her case secure in the knowledge the vote had already been won after weeks of negotiations, which saw the Greens, Lib Dems and Alba wrench another £16.7 million in additional spending.

This will boost funding for hopsice and addictions services, lower the means test for free school meals in some areas, and fund a regional pilot of a £2 bus fare cap.

Confirming the Tories would vote against the budget, their finance spokesman Craig Hoy slammed what he called Holyrood’s “socialist consensus” as he called for taxes to be slashed, while Scottish Labour MSP Michael Marra explained the party’s decision to abstain.

Insisting “Labour’s contribution to this budget is a record £5.2 billion” after October’s UK budget, he told MSPs: “Scottish Labour will not stand in the way of this budget because we despertately want to see Labour’s record investment improve delivery on the front line, but we will not vote for the budget because we very much doubt that it will.

“This budget as it stands promises more of the same and is nowhere near good enough for the one in six Scots stuck on NHS waiting lists, the patients waiting days in A&E, and the elderly Scots stuck on trolleys in corridors, not shocked, but resigned to what is the new SNP normality.”

Scottish Greens MSP Ross Greer said that it had been “the most difficult negotiation for the Greens in a decade,” but added: “I can list a long list of actions for people and planet as a result of Green engagement in this budget, compared to a Labour Party that got everything it asked for out of this budget because it simply asked for nothing.”