SCOTTISH Labour's benefits review is not a betrayal of the party's values but an attempt at an "upfront, honest and progressive" debate about what Scotland's priorities should be, Margaret Curran insists today.
The Shadow Scottish Secretary, speaking exclusively to The Herald ahead of the start of the Labour Party conference tomorrow, decries what she brands the SNP Government's fantasy politics and insists Scottish voters will not be fooled by Nationalist "electoral bribes".
The Glasgow East MP strongly denies she is "a poster girl for the Tories", making clear she will be "taking the fight to the Conservatives very forcefully" in Manchester over their failing economic and welfare policies in Scotland.
On internal matters, Ms Curran urges her party to "stop living in the past" and argues it needs to create a new generation of John Smiths and Donald Dewars to fulfil the "promise of Scotland".
She also insists Scottish Labour's turf wars are over and the party has turned the focus from itself to the needs of the electorate.
The party has come under heavy SNP fire in the past week for reviewing policies such as free prescriptions and free university tuition, with claims the move mimicked the Tories, while indicating Johann Lamont had lost touch with the people of Scotland.
However, Ms Curran defends her leader, saying the decision to instigate the review brought a "level of maturity" to the economic debate.
She says: "We have to move away from fantasy politics in Scotland. We are getting constantly told by the SNP Government everything is fine and that's just not true.
"If we serve our constituents, we have a duty to flag up the true costs; 30,000 workers have been lost in the public sector and services are being squeezed constantly."
The Shadow Secretary of State denies reviewing benefits is a betrayal of Labour values and says: "That's a complete misunderstanding of what is being said. Very few people would couch it in that language other than our political opponents, who have obvious motives for saying that."
She adds: "Labour has always said we have to be effective guardians of public resources because the money does not belong to us but the people of Scotland.
"We need to deploy those resources effectively and based on the values that they work for all the Scottish people."
Ms Curran insists voters should see the Nationalists for what they are. She says: "They are trying to close down this debate and not have this discussion because they want it all to be wrapped up in voter popularity."
She adds: "Voters are more sophisticated than that. They know when an election bribe is an election bribe. Let us put our policies to them and they'll decide what is a popular policy and what isn't."
At an eve-of-conference public question-and-answer session later today, Ed Miliband will warn that Britain faces an economic emergency and the risk of a decade-long decline in living standards. He will call on the nation to summon up the "spirit of '45" to overcome the crisis.
"We will need the same spirit to
overcome this crisis as Britain showed then and in our gravest moments through history; the same spirit, the same determination, the same sense of national mission that there was as our parents and grandparents rebuilt Britain after the Second World War," he will say.
The Labour leader has received a pre-conference boost with a poll giving Labour a 16-point lead and showing the Conservatives falling below 30% for the first time since the 2010 General Election.
Labour is placed on 44%, the Tories on 28% and the Liberal Democrats on just 8%.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article