By Calum Henderson
Labour will challenge ‘foregone conclusions’ at the Holyrood election, Blair McDougall has said. Addressing members of Strathclyde University’s Labour Club on Thursday, 18 February, McDougall hit out at the Scottish Government’s claims that Westminster-imposed austerity was inevitable.
McDougall, a life-long Labour activist, served as a special advisor to ministers in the governments of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He coordinated David Miliband’s unsuccessful attempt to become Labour leader in 2010, but is best known for his role as director of the anti-independence Better Together campaign.
Eying the Holyrood elections on May 5, McDougall stated that Labour would make ‘full use’ of the parliament’s powers if elected to government.
He praised Kezia Dugdale’s recent proposal to raise £500 million by increasing income tax by a penny across all bands, adding that this continuation of Labour’s ‘proud history’ of progressive taxation would expose the SNP’s anti-austery credentials as false. The Scottish Government denounced what it called Labour’s ‘tax grab’, saying it would hit around 2.2 million basic rate tax payers, including half a million pensioners.
The income tax proposal is a measure primarily designed to tackle problems in education, issues McDougall argued the SNP was failing to address. Listing growing inequalities at all levels in education, from primary school to university, McDougall said the policy would help ensure high quality education was maintained. ‘Labour are the only party committed to protecting education spending in real terms’, he told students.
Asked if the policy was a gimmick designed to call the SNP’s bluff, McDougall conceded that although a tax rise is never a popular move, it would force the government’s hand. McDougall also admitted that in government Labour had not delivered enough change, a failing he said the SNP were quick to seize on.
He was adamant that the SNP’s dominance in Scotland will soon wane, and that a second independence referendum if England voted to leave Europe was also not a ‘foregone conclusion’. On his party’s electoral chances, McDougall seemed less certain, but maintained that changing the terms of the political debate in the longer term was more important than immediate electoral success.
McDougall also recalled his time as chair of Glasgow University’s Labour Club, saying he was proud of the organisation’s willingness to challenge the political status quo. He concluded by vowing to do everything in his power to support young activists in the run up to the election this spring.
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