SNP CHIEF WHIP ATTACK'S JIM MURPHY OVER LABOUR PARTY CUTS.

• SNP CHIEF WHIP ATTACK'S JIM MURPHY OVER LABOUR PARTY CUTS.

OUT OF TOUCH WITH SCOTLAND – AND WITH HIS OWN PARTY IN WALES.

The Scottish National Party seized on the remarks by Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy on the BBC Scotland Politics Show today, in which he was unable to provide a figure for the budget cuts to be imposed on the Scottish budget in 2010/11 and 2011/12 by the UK Labour Government – while rejecting the £500 million per annum figure validated by Professor David Bell, Budget Adviser to the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee and Labour's Finance Minister in Wales.

SNP MSP and Chief Whip Brian Adam said:
“Jim Murphy’s interview shows that he is just as ill-informed about his own Government’s budget cuts as he is about Scotland’s energy needs. The £500 million cuts per annum for Scotland comprises £380 million from the £5 billion cuts at UK level, and another £125 million of cuts in Scotland as a consequence of reducing NHS capital spending in England. These figures have been published by Professor David Bell, adviser to the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee.

“Jim Murphy can’t put a figure on his own government’s cuts in Scotland, yet he attacks the figure of Holyrood’s independent finance expert.

“Meanwhile, Labour’s own First Minister and Finance Minister in the Welsh Assembly are complaining about the UK Labour Government’s budget cuts – fearing they could be as much as £500 million in Wales, and the Welsh trade unions are calling for a united front to oppose the Labour cuts.

“Jim Murphy is out of touch with Scotland, and out of touch with his own Labour colleagues in Wales.
“The SNP Government are firmly opposed to Gordon Brown’s billion pound budget bombshell – at the very time we are working to support Scotland’s economic recovery.

“And the people of Scotland can tell Brown and Darling to dump their cuts with a vote for the SNP at the upcoming European and Westminster elections.”

More information regarding this terrible story.

1. Details of the public spending cuts forecast for Wales can be found at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7887373.stm
2. Pre-Budget Report 2008: Effects on Scottish Government Budget
Paper by Professor David Bell, Budget Adviser to the Finance Committee
Extracts:
“The 2010-11 resource DEL includes a non-specific £5bn of “Additional Value for Money Savings”. These have also been referred to as “Efficiency Savings” and, in Scotland, come on top of the 2 per cent annual efficiency savings already built into the budget. If these savings are shared equally across DEL budgets, then the Scottish Government’s budget would fall by £380m.”

“there is also a reduction in the Department of Health’s capital budget of £1.4bn in 2010-11. This is not a reprofiling and will mean a recurring reduction of around £125m in the Scottish Government capital budget.”