SCOTTISH Labour leader Johann Lamont has claimed that Scotland benefits from being part of a United Kingdom with London at its heart.
She used a speech in Edinburgh last night to defend "the remarkable international city state of London" and its role generating wealth for the UK.
Her comments followed claims by First Minister Alex Salmond that London was increasingly damaging the Scottish economy by attracting an ever greater share of wealth and jobs.
He has argued that UK economic policy had been tailored to meet the needs of London and the south-east, to Scotland's detriment.
But, delivering a David Hume Institute lecture at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Ms Lamont said: "I believe wealth should be redistributed to where it is needed.
"I think that one of the best ways we do this is through the United Kingdom.
"I think that the UK is not just made up of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. I believe that we live in a union of five - Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the remarkable international city state of London. The UK is the machinery by which we redistribute wealth among those five constituent parts. And we all benefit."
She added: "I don't believe we should give that up lightly since it represents in essence the sense of community we regard as a Scottish value: rich helps poor."
She said the UK was "more about redistribution" than Scotland and accused SNP ministers of failing to initiate a single policy that transferred wealth from rich to poor.
Accusing the SNP of being "small C conservatives," she also challenged the First Minister's claim that Scotland was more naturally left-wing than England.
She said: "If we voted Yes on September 18th, it might mean we get rid of a few Tories but we will still have conservatives right here at home. The small C conservatives who put a brake on other people's radical visions for change, and whose voices can often be heard louder than those who have none."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article