MILIBAND - LABOUR MUST ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR CUTS & RESPONSIBILITY FOR BANKS

For Immediate Release – Sunday 16th January 2011



Attn: NEWSDESKS

POLITICAL CORRESPONDENTS

GRAY'S STANCE FURTHER UNDERMINED BY PARTY LEADER


Commenting on the interview by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, on the Andrew Marr Show today where he said Labour should have acknowledged earlier that there would have to be cuts under Labour and that they should take their "responsibility for not having regulated the banks sufficiently", SNP MSP Linda Fabiani - a member of the Scottish Parliament's Finance Committee - said it undermined Iain Gray's attempts at Holyrood to try and pretend Labour have no responsibility for the cuts or the financial crisis.


Ms Fabiani called on Ed Miliband to support Scotland having the full job creating powers needed to recover strongly from recession, and challenged Iain Gray to admit that Labour cut Scotland’s budget by £500 million in 2010-11 and put in place two-thirds of the cuts coming Scotland’s way in the next financial year.

SNP MSP and Chief Whip Brian Adam said:


"These remarks totally undermine Iain Gray and his Holyrood party's attempts to pretend the cuts are nothing to do with Labour. It is yet another example of how Labour put in place their own devastating cuts and how the banking collapse happened on their watch. Iain Gray and his spokespeople can no longer pretend that they are innocents in this matter.

“It is the SNP which is working hard to minimise the impact of a series of Labour, LibDem and Tory cuts on Scotland’s families, communities, and services. But without the job creating powers we need to invest properly in economic growth we are faced with Westminster cuts that are too fast and too deep.


“Labour, Iain Gray, and Ed Miliband must explain why they prefer these additional Tory cuts and Tory control of Scottish taxes and spending to Scotland having the responsibility to raise our own finances and spend our own money, to create jobs, and grow the economy. They are prepared to abandon Scotland to years of London Tory control because Labour’s political ambitions lie at Westminster – not in Scotland.


ENDS


Notes

1. Commenting on today's Andrew Marr Show Ed Miliband said the following about cuts and the banking crisis:


"We should have acknowledged earlier - and I think this is the mistake we made - we should have acknowledged earlier, after the financial crisis happened, that eventually there would have to be cuts under Labour. Our plans, our plans involved cuts and we should have acknowledged that. And I think the problem we faced was if you like we sometimes looked like we were pretending there weren't going to be cuts under Labour when in fact there were. So that is a point that I acknowledge."


"I think we should take our responsibility for not having regulated the banks sufficiently, along with governments around the world. I think that the British economy was too exposed to the crash in financial services because we were so reliant on that as an industry to support us. And I think we also should have acknowledged earlier that our plans - our plan to halve the deficit over four years - would have involved cuts.”