Yesterday a row emerged between potential Labour London mayoral candidates – Diane Abbott, Tessa Jowell and David Lammy – and Jim Murphy over the Scottish Labour Leader’s pledge that he ensure some of the funds raised from the Mansion Tax would be used to hire 1,000 extra nurses in Scotland.
Diane Abbott and Jim Murphy then went head-to-head on BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
Two Scottish MPs have come out in Murphy’s defence. Sheila Gilmore, MP for Edinburgh East, told The Huffington Post UK:
“it’s wrong for Diane Abbot to describe Jim Murphy’s proposal as expropriation from London. In reality it’s just another example of the pooling and sharing of resources that makes our United Kingdom so valuable.”
In the same vein, Ann McKechin, MP for Glasgow North defended Murphy’s speech, saying
“The mansion tax proposal is one of our key election offers. It is probably not surprising that London colleagues want to secure new funds for their own local needs but the mansion tax allocation is simply a logical consequence of the existing longstanding Barnett formula.”
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