JIM Murphy will launch the Scottish Labour Party’s manifesto today with a warning that a vote for the SNP will result in “five more years of Tory austerity”.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney has challenged Murphy to detail what cuts will be made to Scotland under a Labour administration.
Key commitments in the Scottish Labour Party’s manifesto include a guarantee of a job and training for long-term unemployed Scots, no matter their age.
“The party will also increase the minimum wage to £8 an hour and will “work towards a living wage”, as well as a ban on zero-hours contracts.
In addition, the party will establish a £200 million Mental Health Fund and a £200m Cancer Fund. The Scottish Labour leader is expected to claim: “We want working class Scots to earn more per hour and to have regular hours” and that “Scotland succeeds when working class Scots succeed.”
Murphy said the money to pay for his manifesto commitments would come from the “super-rich”: “We will reverse the Tory tax cut for millionaires,” he said.
“We will end non-dom status. The Scots crowded onto buses and trains who go to work every day pay their taxes. “It is time the super-rich flying in from Monaco on their private jets did the same.”
Swinney said: “Ed Balls’s admission that Labour plan cuts in Scotland – and his very public humiliation of Jim Murphy – has been the biggest revelation of the election campaign so far.
“But we’re still no closer to knowing exactly what Labour plan to cut in Scotland as Mr Murphy continues to do his best to dodge the issue.
“Without an admission of exactly how much Labour would cut from Scotland’s budget and an indication of exactly where the axe would fall,” Swinney continued, “any other pledges in their manifesto won’t be worth the paper they are written on.”
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