SCOTTISH LABOUR'S 5 POINT PLAN FOR SCOTLAND

Scottish Labour today launched a 5 Point Plan for Jobs calling on the Scottish and UK governments to kickstart growth and get the economy moving again.

The plan was unveiled today on a visit to a successful engineering firm in Glasgow by Margaret Curran MP and Richard Baker MSP, along with Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves MP.

The party has produced tens of thousands of leaflets and an online webpage to allow people to add their support to the plan calling on the two governments to change course.

Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, Richard Baker MSP, said:

"The SNP’s economic policy isn’t working – at the very time risky Tory cuts are beginning to bite. Scots are stuck between the Tories cutting too fast and an SNP government presiding over rising unemployment and declining growth.

"For the last twelve months the Scottish economy has grown even more slowly than the rest of the UK. SNP ministers are simply in denial about the bleak forecasts now facing the Scottish economy.

"We need an urgent change of course and our plan shows the way with five important steps that ministers in power can take now.”

Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Margaret Curran MP, said:

"By trying to cut spending and raise taxes too far and too fast this Tory-led government is getting our economy into a vicious circle, choking off the recovery and putting tens of thousands of people on the dole, claiming benefits rather than paying taxes, which makes it harder to get the deficit down.

"These are worrying times for families across western Europe, but with lower growth in Scotland than the rest of the UK, Scots are being hit harder than most.  

"At the very time there has been a sharp decline in construction, the SNP has delayed 10 key infrastructure projects and is making the rash mistake of cutting capital spending even more quickly than Tory Chancellor George Osborne.

"Labour’s plan will help kick start growth and create jobs now."

Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves MP, added:

"Labour is working right across the UK to make sure we get growth back into the economy. There are things that need to be done at Westminster and Holyrood and our economy teams in both parliaments are working closely together.

"There is a real threat of another generation lost to youth unemployment. The reason averting that lost generation is so important is that people who are out of work at the start of their working lives are held back later in life.

"If you are unemployed in your twenties, you can still feel the effects in your fifties, missing out on early chances and opportunities others have. Labour’s five point plan for jobs and growth is all about kick-starting the economy and getting people back into work now and for the future."

3 November 2011