Gordon Brown back on campaign trail as Murphy pledges to go “even further than the Vow”

Gordon Brown will make a return to the campaign trail for Scottish Labour today, when he appears with leader Jim Murphy in Edinburgh this afternoon. At the event, Murphy will commit to go “even further than the Vow” in handing powers to Scotland – as well as announcing a separate Labour manifesto for Scotland.

Brown’s re-emergence could indicate a significant role for the former prime minister in the election campaign. Polls in Scotland still make for difficult reading as far as Labour are concerned, and Brown maintains a lasting popularity there: Labour improved their election performance under his leadership in 2010, while his interventions in last year’s referendum were well received. With his retirement announced last month, helping turn around the fortunes of Scottish Labour could prove to be the last success in the career of a political titan.

At the event, Jim Murphy will say that the Vow – the promise made by pro-union party leaders to increase powers for Holyrood – is “a starting point not an end point for Scottish Labour”. With the party having come under criticism for taking part in the cross-party No campaign during the referendum, which has led to some accusations of ‘working with the Tories’, this appears to be a concerted effort to set Labour apart from the Coalition parties.

Murphy will say:

“Scottish Labour’s commitment to delivering the Vow is absolute. Every Scottish Labour MP elected stands on a promise to introduce a bill to implement the Smith Agreement within 100 days of the Election.

“However delivering The Vow is a starting point not an end point for Scottish Labour. Smith was a consensus between 5 parties. A Labour approach to powers, and to the use of powers, will reflect our different values and different ambitions for Scotland.

“We have different values from the Tories on welfare and different values from the nationalists on redistribution. 

“The Smith Commission gives Scotland significant new spending and tax powers. The excuse used again and again, that the Scottish Government can’t act because it is a “pocket money parliament” is gone.

“If in Scotland we want to do more on social justice we will have the ability to reallocate funds or raise more money. However, a Scottish Labour party would ensure that the Parliament also has the power to spend more on tackling poverty and unemployment.”

Meanwhile, Brown will set out how Scottish Labour intend to go further than the Vow and the Smith Commission in five areas around welfare. While there would still be a UK-wide benefits system, he says this would act as a minimum, and Scotland would have powers to “top-up” benefits. There would also be some devolution welfare to local communities and in housing benefits.

Brown will say:

“So within 100 days a Labour Government will introduce a bill not just to implement The Vow and the Smith Agreement but that we will go further than The Vow and further than Smith in five important areas, offering distinctive Labour change in Welfare:

“First we will maintain the security of the UK benefits system, with UK benefit rates, underpinned by the pooling and sharing of resources across the UK.

“That will always be there as a minimum for people in Scotland. If you are starting a family, approaching old age or unemployed the social security of Child Benefit, the State Pension, and unemployment benefit will always be there as a minimum for Scotland.

“But we will go further by ensuring that the final say on benefit levels remains in Scotland by giving the Scottish Parliament a wider power to top up UK benefits. This will ensure that Scotland is protected from:

• Tory welfare cuts – there could never be another bedroom tax in Scotland
• and from benefit cuts caused by a fall in Scottish funding due to, for example, the collapse in the oil price, the inevitable consequence of the nationalists plans for full fiscal autonomy.

“Second we will go further by ensuring that the Scottish Parliament has the power to introduce new benefits, funded from Scotland, to meet different circumstances and different choices we make in Scotland. These would be on top of the guarantee of the UK benefit and pensions system minimum.

“Thirdly, while the Tories cut welfare and the SNP cut colleges, we would bring employment and welfare policy together with a positive vision for tackling the low skills, numeracy and literacy problems that hold back adults trapped in long term unemployment.

“In particular we would seek to end youth unemployment in Scotland with a guarantee that every young person will be in a job, in an apprenticeship or in college.

“This makes sense because the support unemployed people need to get back to work, for example skills support from local colleges, has already been in the control of the Scottish Parliament for 15 years.

“The fourth area where we will go further is in Housing Benefit.

“We will fully devolve the housing benefit. A massive £1.8 billion in housing benefit is spent in Scotland every year. This is a huge sum that should be used not to indefinitely subsidise the private rented sector but to invest in new housing in Scotland.

“And the fifth and final area we will go further is in devolving welfare to local communities.”