Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Communist’ MSP hits back
A LABOUR politician has stood by her comments calling for a ban on private businesses making a profit during the cost-of-living crisis.
Opponents of Dundee-based Mercedes Villalba accused her of supporting “all-out communism” after she posted a series of tweets suggesting companies should be “outlawed” from benefiting financially.
Ms Villalba, who was elected to Holyrood last year, posted online: “In a period of record inflation, private profit should be outlawed. Or aren’t we all in this together?
“It’s not a ‘global inflationary phenomenon’ it’s decades of neoliberalism in the making.”
Party officials distanced themselves from the North East regional MSP’s comments.
A Scottish Labour spokesman said: “This is not Labour policy.”
Her idea to curb all profits made by private businesses go far beyond proposals made by any mainstream political leader in recent years.
The Tories claimed Ms Villalba’s position was “ludicrous” as they branded their Labour rivals
“extreme” and “irrational”. MSP Maurice Golden said: “Mercedes Villalba has completely lost the plot with this bizarre suggestion.
“The idea that we should outlaw all private profit goes way beyond left-wing economics and into the realm of all-out communism.
“This ludicrous position would be laughed out of the room in a student union debate – to hear it from an elected politician is completely absurd.”
Explaining her comments later, Ms Villalba said: “Given the cost-of-living crisis, when people are struggling to pay their bills and going without food, big businesses who have done well throughout the pandemic should be reinvesting profits into improved pay and conditions for workers, and lowering prices for consumers, rather than continuing to stockpile private profits.”
Prices of goods have been rising in recent months as the UK is gripped by a severe cost-of-living crisis.
It’s been warned millions across Britain could be left in fuel poverty this winter if politicians do not intervene.
In January Ms Villalba claimed that ex-Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension from the party should be ended by party leader Keir Starmer.