HOLYROOD was slammed today as “a parliament for the wealth, not the workers” as data shows soaring inequality since devolution.

Analysis by the trade union body found the combined wealth of the 10 richest people in Scotland — including Danish fashion billionaire Ander Holch Polvsen, worth £8.2 billion, and bus tycoons-cum-Labour Party donors the Easdale brothers on £1.5bn — now stood at an eye-watering £23bn.

This outstrips the £21.5bn the Scottish government hopes to yield from income tax in the coming year.

Figures also show average wages have grown by 138 per cent since the Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999, a figure dwarfed by the 826 per cent boost to coffers of the 10 richest individuals over the same period.

Branding the soaring inequalities “incomprehensible,” STUC general secretary Roz Foyer demanded the new Scottish Parliament use its powers to better tax wealth.

Arguing the growing inequality was “fundamentally at odds with what the Scottish Parliament was intended to deliver,” she said: “People across Scotland are sick to death of communities struggling while those at the top of the rich list continue to accumulate extraordinary wealth.

“The Scottish government cannot be complicit in that inequality by refusing to use the full powers of the Scottish Parliament to tax wealth, property and unearned income fairly.”

Ms Foyer added: “Government must begin to redistribute power – empowering trade unions to collectively bargain for better pay, terms and conditions for Scotland’s workers.

“This Parliament must mark the beginning of a move away from a trickle-down economic model to one that challenges inequality, prioritises fairness and working-class people over the extremely wealthy.

“This must become the First Minister’s defining mission in government – and the people of Scotland deserve nothing less.”