Former rail minister slates Labour campaign on fares

Ex-MP compares ‘dishonest’ colleagues to Trump over calls for nationalisation

A FORMER Labour UK transport minister has condemned party colleagues’ campaign on Scotland’s railways as “totally unrealistic populism”, accusing them of promoting “irrelevant” policies.

Tom Harris, who held the Westminster post under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said Scottish Labour had avoided explaining that its demands for a rail fares freeze could only be funded by tax hikes.

Heaping pressure on beleaguered leader Kezia Dugdale, the former MP and rail minister also compared the party’s People’s ScotRail campaign with the rise in populist politics typified by US President-elect Donald Trump and Ukip, dismissing calls for a nationalised operator as “a dishonest solution to a very complicated problem”.

It comes a month after the former Scottish Labour leadership candidate, one of his party’s most stridently Unionist figures north of the Border, called for Holyrood to be given total control of the railway infrastructure in Scotland.

Labour said its MSPs had “led the way on exposing the chaos facing ScotRail passengers” and had “successfully held the SNP Government to account”.

The party has made the railways its key weapon to attack the SNP Government in recent months, complaining about delays, overcrowding and ticket prices on the network and calling for current ScotRail franchise holder Abellio to have its contract terminated. The industry has said it is going through major enhancements with the network being electrified and rolling stock and stations improved.

The Scottish Government announced as part of its recent Budget that fares would rise but come with a free week’s travel for monthly and season ticket passengers backed by £3 million, which it said was of greater value than the hike.

But Mr Harris said: “I’m irritated by any political party trying to get shortterm advantage from the railway industry. What has really irritated me is the campaign for rail fares freeze.

“This year is meant to be the year we’re turning our backs on populism. It’s really done enough damage. But there’s little more populist than a rail fares freeze, which is totally unrealistic. Presumably Labour doesn’t want cash to be cut from other parts of the railways budget and they know it doesn’t come from the ScotRail.

“What they are saying is a freeze should be paid for by taxes going up. It’s an incredibly short-term proposal.”

The former Glasgow MP also said nationalisation was a “red herring” and described claims the network would not face similar delays and problems if it was state-owned as “just cobblers”.

One senior industry insider described Labour’s campaign as “deeply cynical”, accusing them of having only one policy. The source added: “Rather than standing outside stations handing out flimsy dossi- ers that stand no scrutiny whatsoever, they would be better served talking to the industry about what could actually make a difference.”

Scottish Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said: “For a party that claims to be in favour of a publicly-owned ScotRail it does beg the question why Labour sat on their hands and chose not to stop franchising when they had a golden opportunity to do so.”

A Labour spokesman said: “We will always put passengers first. Regular travellers are fed up with delayed, overcrowded and cancelled trains.

“After the year they have endured, we believe all passengers deserve a break with a freeze on rail fares in 2017. This policy has been very popular with passengers. In the long-term we want to move to a publicly-owned People’s ScotRail, and we’ve seen with the East Coast Main Line that public ownership can deliver better results.” BATTLING through the winds, these shoppers brave Storm Barbara as it brought severe disruption yesterday.

The scene in Edinburgh was repeated across much of Scotland as gusts reached speeds of up to 90mph.

Safety fears in the capital forced the closure of outdoor festive entertainment venues, including the Starflyer, the Big Wheel, the climbing wall and the Scottish market.

The high winds also left many festive travellers stranded with ferry company CalMac cancelling nearly every sailing due to mountainous seas, with most unlikely to operate today. ScotRail also cancelled services and operated at reduced speed on others. Thousands of homes were left without power and more than 100 schools were closed. Storm Conor is expected to batter Scotland tomorrow.