LABOUR will scrap the so-called bedroom tax if it regains power at the 2015 General Election, the party's Scottish welfare spokeswoman said yesterday.
But in an embarrassing spat, a UK Labour spokesman later appeared to rein in Jackie Baillie, saying: "We haven't made that pledge to date."
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland yesterday, MSP Baillie said the controversial welfare cut would be abolished under a future UK Labour government and that an announcement to that effect was imminent.
Although Labour leader Ed Miliband has criticised the "tax" - a result of housing benefit changes - he has not yet committed himself to ending it.
Labour's annual conference in Brighton in a week's time is the likely forum for the pledge.
Baillie said: "We are very clear. Labour rejected this approach when it was put to them in government, for social landlords.
"We have campaigned for its abolition. Yes, we will abolish it. My understanding is that you can expect an announcement relatively soon."
Despite a spokesman for UK Labour suggesting Baillie had gone too far, Scottish Labour sources insisted the tax would be abolished, even if Miliband hadn't got around to saying so yet.
Called the spare room subsidy by the Coalition, the bedroom tax cuts the housing benefit to council and housing association tenants deemed to have one or more spare bedrooms by 14% to 25%.
Tenants who are unable to pay the difference are told to take in a lodger or downsize, but there are too few smaller properties in the social rented sector to meet demand.
Many councils have reported a spike in arrears since the change began in April, raising fears of a rise in evictions and homelessness.
Last week, UN Special Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik called for the bedroom tax to be scrapped after gathering evidence in cities around the UK.
Baillie's announcement over- shadowed the opening of the UK Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow, where Nick Clegg faces an embarrassing defeat on the bedroom tax tomorrow. Delegates arriving at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre yesterday were met by several hundred protesters calling for the tax to be abolished.
Inside the building, LibDem peer Baroness Shirley Williams was applauded for describing the bedroom tax as "a big mistake" during a Q&A session.
Asked about the Coalition's welfare reforms, she said: "I'm very worried, I can't say I'm not. I find it very hard indeed to raise the slightest enthusiasm for the bedroom tax. I think it was a mistake."
She also criticised the £500-a-week benefit cap on working-age families, saying it was too crude to safeguard spending given high rents in cities like London and Edinburgh.
"I think we're being too ruthless across the whole front," she said.
But she admitted a lot of the reforms were popular and that the public had moved to the right on the issue "because people like us have not made it clear enough what the welfare state is all about."
In a potential humiliation for Clegg,which could see the bedroom tax dominate the conference, delegates will tomorrow vote on a highly critical motion that says the policy is "discriminating against the most vulnerable in society"and fails to appreciate the needs of the disabled.
It calls for an immediate evaluation of the scheme, and a moratorium on some benefit cuts.
The LibDems have previously embarrassed their party leadership over the policy. Six months ago, the Scottish LibDem conference voted overwhelmingly for a delay to the bedroom tax, despite their leader Willie Rennie defending it as "tough but central" to welfare reforms.
A senior LibDem source said the party hierarchy was "not deaf" to the outcry over the bedroom tax.
But the source added it would be "impossible" to persuade the Tory Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith to drop it just a few months after its launch.
In the meantime, LibDems will continue to push for help for the most vulnerable.
Besides making life miserable for Clegg, any Labour shift on the bedroom tax would also rob the SNP of one of their key lines of attack in the run-up to the independence referendum.
The Nationalists argue they too would abolish the tax - but could only do so if Scotland is independent.
Glasgow's SNP MSPs, including Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, yesterday urged Clegg to step outside the conference "bubble" and meet some of the 14,500 people in the city affected by the bedroom tax.
In a letter to the Deputy Prime Minister, they said: "We urge you to use your time in the city to meet with some of the people living here who have been hardest hit by the bedroom tax your government has introduced.
"We hope that you will recognise the need for you not to let your time in Glasgow go to waste and accept our calls for you to meet with people affected by the bedroom tax."
In his annual Budget statement last week, SNP Finance Secretary John Swinney announced an extra £20 million to help the 85,000 Scots households hit by the tax, less than half the extra that tenants are being asked to pay.
SNP MSP Linda Fabiani, who sits on Holyrood's welfare reform committee, said: "Labour is mired in confusion when it comes to the bedroom tax - it's like the dance of the seven veils.
"There appear to be different policies and views from Labour spokespeople in different parts of the UK. Miliband needs to get a grip on this.
"In complete contrast, the SNP's position has been unequivocal - the bedroom tax would be scrapped in an independent Scotland if we were elected to office."
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