SCOTLAND’s only Labour MP said that London should ask for its “money back” when campaigning against Scottish independence, it has emerged.
Speaking in May, Ian Murray told Labour party members based in London: “You only have to take a boat from the east to the west along the Thames to see where the economic driver of the UK is.”
He added: “Now that might be the right thing or the wrong thing, but it’s still a reality, and that’s one of the big things that people have to realise, that where you have your economic centres, you stick close to them, and you share and pool your resources, which is a big thing that Scots need to appreciate.”
Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary, said this meant Londoners should tell Scots “you want your money back”.
READ MORE: Ian Murray told party colleagues that Labour are ‘irrelevant’ in Scotland
Taking to Twitter in response, the SNP's Mhairi Hunter said that she "very much encourage[d] Labour to do this", adding a laughing emoji.
Sources said Murray was arguing for redistribution of wealth and resources across the UK to make the positive case for the Union, The Times reported.
In February 2019 the then Scottish cabinet secretary for finance, Derek Mackay, submitted a £34 billion Scottish budget.
GERS figures released late last month estimated Scotland’s total annual revenues at £65.9bn, and total expenditure at £81bn.
If GERS is taken at face value, this suggests that Westminster is responsible for handing Scotland a deficit of around £15bn.
Kate Forbes, the current Cabinet Secretary for Finance, said these figures showed that "Scotland simply cannot afford not to have the powers of a normal independent country”.
“Current constitutional arrangements [are] unsustainable,” she added.
READ MORE: Kate Forbes says GERS figures show Scotland in UK is 'financially unsustainable'
Last week it emerged that Murray had planned to join Change UK, a centrist pro-EU group that dissolved just ten months after it was formed.
The Edinburgh South MP was reportedly planning to join seven other Labour MPs who quit the party to join Change UK before pulling out at the last minute.
According to a new book, Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn, Murray changed his mind as he did not want to face a Labour rival in the race for his Westminster seat, reportedly telling friends: “I didn’t want to hand my seat to someone from the Corbyn wing of the party and felt loyalty to all the people who had worked so hard to help me win over the years.”
Every sitting MP who joined the new group lost their seat in the December 2019 General Election.
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