Leonard to attack public service privatisation

Richard Leonard will today outline Scottish Labour plans to roll back the privatisation of public services in the aftermath of the Carillion scandal.

The party leader will attack Private Finance Initiatives, even though they have been promoted by his party. In a speech in Dundee, Mr Leonard will say public services should not serve “the balance sheets of financiers.”

He will say: “The lesson of the collapse of Carillion is that the model of the private provision of public services is no longer, in so much as it ever was, delivering for the people. That is why I intend to initiate an urgent and comprehensive review of who runs our public services and how we fund our public projects and infrastructure so it does not provide a cash bonanza to absentee shareholders.