Meeting of the Parliament 04 November 2015
I will do so in the course of my speech.
I wonder whether I can get Mr Fraser to reflect on the words of Tory member of Parliament David Davis, who said:
“The Government needs to look at this again. For three million families losing £1,000 doesn’t mean cancelling your holiday, it means an empty pantry. I hope this doesn’t turn out to be our Poll Tax.”
When Murdo Fraser opens the debate for the Conservatives, will he say whether he agrees with David Davis?
Labour will use the new powers that are coming to this Parliament to fulfil its historic mission to stand up for working people. I promise members that no one will pay more tax than they are paying now under Labour’s plans to restore the money that is lost from tax credits—not one penny more.
We would use the air passenger duty of £250 million to help working families, rather than give a tax cut to airlines, as the SNP proposes to do. We would not increase tax thresholds for those earning more than £42,000, as the Tories propose to do. That will give funding of £440 million, to answer Murdo Fraser’s question. There is more than enough from both those sources to fully fund the policy and even a bit more.
The SNP really does need to keep up. The claim that our funding has already been committed for education is absolute nonsense. Unlike the SNP, we do not spend the same amount of money over and over again. As Kezia Dugdale said at the weekend, we will use the powers that are coming to Scotland to set a 50p top rate of tax on those who are earning more than £150,000 a year, to invest in education. Specifically, we will create a fair start fund for our poorest pupils—an idea that was praised this week by the commission on school reform, which criticised the SNP’s lack of urgency in closing the attainment gap between the richest and the rest in our classrooms.
The Government’s amendment is factually wrong, but I do not imagine that that will bother Alex Neil much. Why let the facts stand in the way of his spinning yarns? I fully expect from him a pantomime dame performance to distract us from the paucity of the SNP’s position. The SNP’s amendment says that we do not have the power. What rubbish! John Swinney says that we do not have the money, but I have just demonstrated that we do. This is about political will. Alex Neil has over 5,000 families in his constituency who are in receipt of tax credits; today, he has turned his back on them, offering them a pitiful excuse rather than real action. He is putting grudge and grievance with the United Kingdom before action that will help working families, and he is using the constitution simply as a distraction and an excuse.
Like the SNP Government, Alex Neil is very good at talking but not so good at doing. Just last Sunday, Alex Neil—who knows that I hang on his every word—said:
“Tax credits can be a lifeline for families on low incomes that rely on them to get through daily life, put food on the table, heat their home and pay their bills.”
I agree. He said:
“Removing this vital support from thousands of families will widen the gap in inequalities and push even more people into poverty.”
I agree with that, too. He also said:
“The UK Government’s plans are a clear attack on low income working families and those families must be protected as a matter of urgency.”
Alex Neil can claim the match ball, because that is a hat trick of things that I agree with him about. Both Alex Neil and I oppose Tory austerity; the difference between us is that I am willing to do something about it instead of simply wringing my hands and telling everybody how bad it is.
Let us take action, see the possibilities of devolution and use the power to do good. I am willing to unlock the potential of devolution and use the powers of this Parliament for the purpose of standing up for working-class families.