Miliband blasts SNP values in final push for votes
Nationalism has no track record for good, Labour leader tells Scotland
LABOUR leader Ed Miliband launched a scathing attack on Scottish Nationalism last night in an impassioned last-ditch attempt to avoid electoral wipeout for his party north of the Border in next week’s vote.
He told a rally of supporters in Glasgow that “Nationalism never built a school” and would only serve to set “Scotland against England”.
His words came as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that she would be prepared to have her MPS vote down a Labour Budget if Mr Miliband was not prepared to deal with the Nationalists at Westminster. She also accused Mr Miliband of “losing the plot” over the issue.
And former Labour energy minister Brian Wilson last night said Labour’s struggles are partly down to the party “contemplating its own navel” instead of defending its record in government.
Mr Miliband was in Scotland attempting to shore up the party’s floundering vote north of the Border, as polls suggest the SNP could win more than 50 of the country’s 59 seats in next week’s election.
“Nationalism doesn’t understand we are stronger, not weaker, when we look after each other across the whole of our country,” he said.
“Nationalism never built a school. It never lifted people out of poverty. It never created a welfare state that healed the sick and protected our most vulnerable. Nationalism cannot create the jobs we need.”
Labour believes in “the principles of sharing and solidarity”, he added, that underpin the partnerships of four nations in the modern UK. He added: “If we
set England against Scotland, if we set any part of our country against another, it does not help working people, it harms working people.
“It undermines the ability to share resources. It drives down wages and conditions in the race to the bottom.”
With less than a week to go until polling day, Labour is facing heavy losses in Scotland, where support for the SNP has been surging since the independence referendum.
While this reduces Labour’s chance of winning a majority at Westminster, Mr Miliband again made clear that he would not do a deal with the SNP after 7 May.
He said: “I know the people of Scotland want a more just society. And with food banks, payday lenders and the neglect of the NHS, Scottish people feel there must be no delay.
“That’s why I have a clear message for the people of Scotland today: Don’t gamble with the SNP when you can guarantee change with Labour.”
Mr Miliband hit back at Ms Sturgeon’s claims that if Labour fails to work with Scottish Nationalists this would see David Cameron win a second term as Prime Minister.
He added that if the SNP wins dozens of seats from Labour in Scotland, this would increase Tory chances of being the largest party.
Mr Miliband vowed: “I will never put the Tories into government. I have spent my entire political career fighting them.
“But the tragedy is that the SNP may very well let the Tories in. That’s what could happen if the Tories are the largest party.”
He continued: “I am also clear there will be no deal, no pact, no coalition, no tie-in with the SNP.
“I don’t say that for tactical reasons – I’m advocating this for principled reasons.
“We cannot do a deal with a party that wants to break up the UK when we want to build it up.”
Mr Miliband was joined at last night’s event by Scottish leader Jim Murphy and shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran. It was held in Tollcross leisure centre in Mrs Curran’s Glasgow East constituency, which is a key target seat for the SNP in next week’s vote.
Mr Murphy said: “The Nationalists can buy all the red ties in the world, they can cut and paste our policies into their manifesto, but they will never share our values.”
However, Mr Wilson, who was a key figure in Tony Blair’s government, said Labour has not done enough to defend its record on public spending, particularly after the financial crash.
Writing in today’s Scotsman, he says: “By failing to defend its record between 1997 and 2010, Labour made the most dangerous mistake of politics – it allowed others to write a false narrative which, through repetition, became received wisdom.
“That ground was largely conceded after the last election when Labour reverted to contemplating its own navel, preferring self-flagellation to selfbelief.”
Ms Sturgeon turned up the heat on Mr Miliband as she revealed in an interview last night that if Labour won’t deal with the SNP at Westminster, then Nationalists could vote against a Labour Budget, but insisted this would not bring down the government. The First Minister also slammed Mr Miliband’s claim he would rather lose the election than work with the SNP.
“If Ed Miliband is really saying he would rather have a Tory government than work with the SNP for more progressive politics, then it’s final proof that Labour has lost the plot,” she said.
“It will be the final nail in the coffin of Scottish Labour, and I suspect Labour in other parts of the UK, and it makes it all the more important that we have a big team of SNP MPS because we will need them to protect Scotland from the Tories, because clearly Ed Miliband is not prepared to do it.”
She added: “I think people across Scotland, and I suspect across other parts of the UK, will be appalled.
“If Ed Miliband is really saying that if there is an anti-tory majority in the House of Commons and an opportunity to get the Tories out, he would stand back and watch David Cameron go back into Downing Street rather than work with the SNP, then people in Scotland will never, ever forgive Labour if that turns out to be the case, and I suspect people in other parts of the UK won’t forgive them either.
“I think Ed Miliband is saying these things because he’s being bullied and bossed around by the Tories on this.”
But Ms Sturgeon’s revelation that the party could bring the Budget of a Labour government down came under fire from Kezia Dugdale, Labour’s deputy leader in Scotland.
Ms Dugdale said: “Many people who have trusted Nicola Sturgeon will be shocked to hear her say she will vote down a Labour Budget. A Budget which will bring in measures such as the mansion tax and the bankers’ bonus tax.
“This shows that the people of Scotland should not gamble with the SNP.”
OFF the back of the referendum, Alex Salmond announced that the price of SNP support for a Labour government would be delivery of full fiscal autonomy. Nice and clear-cut.
There was no talk of “over years”, to which the script has now been shamelessly adapted. While walking off with this dubious prize, the Nationalists would “hold Labour’s feet to the fire” on lots of progressive policies which they themselves had overlooked at Holyrood.
At the time, I took part in a radio programme based on this exciting offer and contributed a statement of the obvious – that the SNP had not the slightest interest in supporting a Labour government and their interests lay in achieving a Tory one, facilitated by taking lots of seats off Labour in Scotland.
Everything since has reinforced that analysis. But I recall the presenter’s response: “That’s a very cynical view,” she said huffily, as if I had come up with some outlandish conspiracy theory, to disturb the premise for her programme which was to accept Salmond at face value and proceed from there.
Months later, the paradox seems set in stone. Every Nationalist tactic is directed towards facilitating a Tory victory. Yet Labour has been painted into the corner of having to renounce deals with the SNP; a prospect which has simultaneously made that Tory victory more likely.
Yet what is the reality? Nobody can vote for a hung parliament. If there is one, the Tories as incumbents will get first shot at forming a government. If they fail and Labour can try, there would be no need for negotiations, conditions, deals, coalitions or anything else with the SNP. It would be a straightforward question of a majority for a Labour-scripted Queen’s speech. The dilemma would be entirely one for the SNP. They could vote for, against or abstain.
If they denied Labour a majority, their new army of MPS would be facing the electorate within weeks rather than the five allotted years. Having carried off the con trick of pretending their objective was to support a Labour government, they would be defending the fact they had just brought one down.
In short, there is not a snowball’s chance they would act in that way because of the price they would pay. The memory of 1979 is not entirely dead. They would have no choice but to allow Labour to remain in office – which is why they don’t want them there in the first place.
So why did Ed Miliband allow himself to be painted into the Scottish corner when the answer months ago should have been: “They can either back us or help bring us down. It’s entirely up to them.” I am sure this question has also baffled grateful Tory strategists.
If there is a Tory or Tory-led government after next Thursday, the Nationalists will revert to their old script about Scotland not having the government it voted for (i.e. themselves). There would be limited truth in this since it is now being waved under the noses of the Scottish electorate exactly what voting SNP is intended to result in.
There is no need to take my word for it since the front pages of the Sun’s two editions – English and Scottish – spelt it out more eloquently. The former told its readers to vote Tory to stop the SNP “running Britain” The latter told its readers to vote SNP as a “new hope”.
Two pincers within the same movement – the return of a Tory government. The day may have passed when Rupert Murdoch’s influence can swing elections, but his editorial strategy should confirm the coincidence of Tory and SNP interests has only one intended outcome. It sure ain’t a Labour government.
Labour does not have long left to remind voters about the true choices next Thursday. These are not about who will deal with whom but about how the power and resources of government will be used over
Why did Ed Miliband allow himself to be painted into the Scottish corner?
the next five years. To that debate, the SNP is a sideshow even if they present themselves as ringmasters.
By failing to defend its record between 1997 and 2010, Labour made the most dangerous mistake of politics – it allowed others to write a false narrative which became received wisdom. That ground was largely conceded after the last election when Labour reverted to contemplating its own navel, preferring self-flagellation to selfbelief.
When I hear Labour figures accosted for having done nothing except plunge the nation into debt, I wonder if they have heard of the London School of Economics report for the Rowntree Foundation which carried out the most comprehensive review of the last Labour government’s performance.
It concluded: “Until the crisis hit after 2008, spending levels were unexceptional by historic UK and international standards, and national debt levels were lower than when Labour took office… Increases in spending facilitated a reduction in child and pensioner poverty, shorter hospital waiting times, improved pupil-teacher ratios…
“There is a myth that Labour spent a lot and achieved nothing. The evidence shows that gaps narrowed on virtually all the socio-economic indicators that were targeted… Labour left the coalition with a legacy of more equal outcomes, less poverty and expanded public services”.
And then, when the global banking crisis hit, Labour handled it rather well, producing outcomes far, far better – not least for Scotland – than in other countries which suffered from the same plague of greedy, reckless bankers. Check out Ireland or Iceland or Greece.
Where have we heard any of that over the past six weeks? What would a similar audit of the Scottish Government’s performance conclude, in the unlikely event of one being permitted? It would find an NHS creaking at the seams, a growing number of semi-literate children and a total absence of measures to redistribute wealth from rich to poor, strong to weak.
There is a decent Labour record to defend, a message of hope to transmit and an alternative to be warned against. In their hearts, an awful lot of people know it and some of them may yet be persuaded to vote accordingly. The alternative is not Scotland’s say but Murdoch’s two ways to one goal.