Murphy pledges 1000 new nurses for Scotland

In a speech earlier today in Edinburgh, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy announced the party’s first pledge for the 2015 general election – 1,000 new nurses for Scotland.

Murphy said that these nurses would be paid for by a UK wide government implementing the Mansion Tax, and would be above and beyond any nurses which the SNP government in Holyrood committed that Scottish Labour will:

“with our colleagues in the rest of the UK, introduce a Mansion Tax on properties worth over £2 million across the UK. This will provide £250 million in additional revenue for Scotland. As much as 95% of that tax will be levied in the South East of the UK but its benefit will be felt across the UK.

“There is a choice about what we would do with that money raised outside of Scotland and how we spend it in Scotland.

“Today I can announce Scottish Labour’s General Election pledge. We will support the NHS and nurses and use the money from a UK mansion tax to fund an additional 1,000 NHS nurses in Scotland over and above the SNP plans that we inherit. So often in politics we hear from voters that politicians are all the same or from commentators that the differences between parties are marginal. But this is a uniquely Labour pledge for a Labour priority.”

Labour candidates and activists in the South East (and London) may wince at Murphy’s reminder that the tax falls so predominantly on that area of the country – but it’s certainly a case for the redistributive benefits of the UK.