Labour and the Tories all underestimate how hard it will be to pay for their manifesto commitments and are failing to level with voters on the scale of the challenge.
They say the Scottish Government’s budget is likely to be tight in certain areas from next year, even before the parties’ new spending plans are accounted for.
Manifesto pledges for the three largest parties were examined due to time and resource constraints, the think tank said. David Phillips, associate director at the IFS, said: “The SNP and Scottish Labour envisage what they might think of as a Scandinavian-style future – with a smorgasbord of new entitlements for Scottish residents.
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