NICOLA Sturgeon has unleashed a stinging attack on Jeremy Corbyn, saying he is failing to unite his party on all the main issues of the day and voters will ask “what’s the point of voting Labour?”
As the SNP leader prepares to give her keynote conference speech tomorrow, she said of the Labour leader: “He's not uniting Labour on Trident, on the economy, even on air strikes on Syria. On all of these big issues of the day Labour is deeply divided. It may be the oldest political cliché in the book but divided parties don't win elections.
“And for people in Scotland, and am sure will be the case for people across the UK, if they don't see Jeremy Corbyn being able to unite Labour to become a credible alternative government, then what's the point of voting Labour?”
Given that the SNP at Westminster is set to hold a debate on Trident, which will highlight the divisions within Labour on the nuclear deterrent, the Nationalist strategy is clear: to maximise the splits within the UK Opposition, north and south of the border, ahead of the Scottish parliamentary elections in May.
Interviewed on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, Ms Sturgeon emphasised that if Scotland were dragged out of the European Union because the UK, in the forthcoming in-out referendum, voted to leave, then “in those circumstances the demand for a second independence referendum would be probably unstoppable”. She added that it would not be automatic but it would be “highly likely”.
The First Minister was asked if, when Holyrood gained more tax powers, she would raise them to alleviate the UK Government’s austerity measures.
Ms Sturgeon replied that the SNP administration would decide on tax when it considered its annual Budget like any responsible government would and that she would “not rule out or rule in” such a scenario because it would be another two years before Holyrood had flexible powers over income tax.
She stressed how the Scottish Government needed control over “a broad range of taxes” but would take decisions on the prevailing circumstances at the time and based on the SNP’s progressive principles.
When it was put to Ms Sturgeon that, according to the respected think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies, health spending in Scotland was five per cent lower than that in England over the last five years, she stressed how its figures did “not take full account of our non-profit distributing capital programme”.
Ms Sturgeon insisted the SNP had passed on every penny of Barnett Formula consequentials to Scotland’s NHS, health spending was £3 billion higher than when the Nationalists took office and waiting times were lower. “So good progress but we’re ambitious to do more.”
The party leader insisted that the SNP Government had prioritised health care and spending per head in Scotland was higher than it was in England.
When it was suggested that spending on education in England over a similar period had been higher than it was in Scotland, Ms Sturgeon insisted expenditure again was higher per head north of the border.
When it was pointed out that a 2013 report showed only 25 per cent of the most deprived children in Scotland were performing well or very well when two years earlier the figure had been 29 per cent, the party leader said it was just one snapshot and more rigorous information was needed.
Ms Sturgeon stressed that on Higher results and university applications the attainment gap between pupils from the poorest and better off households had narrowed but that she wanted to go further and faster.
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