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Miliband pledges power for Scots under Labour

Labour Leader Ed Miliband with reporter Kieran Andrews for the Dundee Courier.
Labour Leader Ed Miliband with reporter Kieran Andrews for the Dundee Courier.

Scotland would be given more powers under a Labour Government at Westminster, Ed Miliband has pledged.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier, the party’s leader said devolution was not a “static and unchanging settlement” and if elected, he would move to further empower the Scottish Parliament in the event of a no vote next year.

The details of which areas could be controlled north of the border would be fleshed out by the results of an investigation being carried out by Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont.

Mr Miliband said he would be playing an “active part” in the Better Together campaign, which he insisted would not become complacent over the issue of independence, despite holding a healthy lead in the majority of polls.

He said: “I think, over time the SNP’s plans are starting to unravel. Whether it’s their place in terms of the European Union, whether it’s the issues around the army the whole set of issues.

“Whenever it seems to come up Alex Salmond seems to say: ‘We want that; we’ll keep that.’ The monarchy, the pound, a whole set of things and I think people are beginning to wise up to where the SNP are going wrong. We have always said that it’s not going to stay always the same, the devolution settlement. We should always look at whether it’s capable of being improved and that’s always the case.

“That is a very different question from the question of separatism. We think it’s right that now that the SNP have called this referendum, that we settle this question.

“Johann Lamont has her own commission looking at the issue of devolution and are there other powers that we could devolve that should be devolved and as the Labour leader in the United Kingdom, I’m absolutely happy that work goes on.

“When the original devolution settlement happened there was never the argument that it would always stay the same forever but I would say that’s a far cry from separatism.

“That’s always been my view and I’m certainly not going to get into a position of saying there is a static and unchanging settlement. I don’t think we should get into that position.”

Mr Miliband said he would be campaigning for social justice as part of his bid to be the next Prime Minister and attacked the UK Government’s record on the economy.

He praised the work being carried out by Dundee West MP Jim McGovern and Dundee-based MSP Jenny Marra on behalf of “young people in Dundee who want work families who are being squeezed on their energy bills, small businesses who can’t get a loan”.

Mr Miliband added: “We are going to fight this referendum campaign as hard as we can and I think I hope we can get the right result.

“My essential argument is, how do you achieve social justice? Do you achieve social justice through separatism, as the SNP claim, or do you achieve social justice through the United Kingdom?

“I believe you can achieve better social justice for the people of Dundee through the United Kingdom and that’s the argument I’m going to make.”