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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

There are two points. First, because Scotland has been in surplus for the past 30 years, every single penny spent on public services in Scotland has been raised from taxes paid in Scotland. Secondly, if Scotland’s funding was to be cut to the English average, it would provide England with £150 more per head but would cut a quarter of Scotland’s expenditure. If Labour policy is now to sack a quarter of the doctors, a quarter of the teachers and a quarter of the nurses and to cut back a quarter of all expenditure, I will be delighted to make that argument on the doorsteps. Sometimes, the hyperbole about the Barnett formula takes Labour Members into areas into which they perhaps might not want to go.