A FORMER Labour minister branded Ian Blackford a “pantomime character” and accused the SNP of “taking more money from English taxpayers than English taxpayers get for themselves” in a furious rant on Sky News.
Jack Straw, who served as home secretary and foreign secretary under Tony Blair, took aim at Nicola Sturgeon’s party after Blackford was removed from the Commons for accusing the Prime Minister of misleading parliament. He suggested the MP could have made his point with conviction without “breaking the rules”.
Straw played a key role in shaping the devolution agreement – but during his rant on Kay Burley’s show, suggested he is not happy with the current financial arrangements between Westminster and Holyrood.
READ MORE: GERS and the continuing myth of the ‘fiscal deficit’ in Scotland
After criticising the SNP Westminster chief’s behaviour, which Blackford stood by on Tuesday morning, Straw went on a rampage against Blackford’s party.
“I’m afraid I haven’t got a great deal of time for the Scottish National Party, nationalist party,” he said – a phrase Johnson has come under fire for using on several occasions.
“They are all things to all people provided they’re complaining and pigeon themselves against the English and taking more money from English taxpayers than English taxpayers get for themselves, and then complaining some more.”
It is thought Straw is referring to the fact that public spending per head in Scotland is higher than in England, something the Institute for Fiscal Studies puts down to the Barnett Formula – a system devised by a Labour minister in 1978. Scotland does not decide how much money it is allocated by the UK Government on an annual basis.
Scotland’s Finance Secretary Kate Forbes acknowledged last year that Scotland does benefit from higher spending per head as a result of the formula, but said the country’s fiscal position is not secure under Westminster rule.
“While the Barnett formula does provide Scotland with slightly higher public spending per head than in England, it is already under attack by the Tories at Westminster, who have cut our capital budget by 5% and stripped the Scottish Parliament of powers so they can engage in ‘pork-barrel’ spending through the so-called levelling up fund,” she said.
“Scotland’s funding will never be safe under a Prime Minister who famously said that a pound spent in Croydon is better than a pound spent in Strathclyde.”
Straw concluded his argument with a pledge for a Labour revival in Scotland, telling the broadcaster: “And one day, although it has been a very long time coming and has been a Labour failure in Scotland, the SNP support will twist and fall.”
The leaked survey revealed that 30% of Scottish Labour voters support indyref2 “in principle”.
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