Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has promised billions in investment for housing, education and bus routes, despite the matters being devolved.
Announcing a £70 billion investment programme for Scotland, Mr Corbyn said the money would be spent on housing, education and bus infrastructure – all of which are devolved to the Scottish Government, meaning whoever was in charge at Bute House would have final say on where money sent over the border was spent.
Mr Corbyn was speaking at an event at the Queens Hotel in Dundee on Wednesday morning where he promised “real change” for the whole of the UK and the most “transformative” Labour government since Clement Atlee.
The Labour leader was visiting the city as part of his “battle bus” tour of the UK and spoke to around 90 people in the basement suite.
Midway through his address, Mr Corbyn was interrupted by nationalist firebrand Bob Costello, who angrily demanded Labour follow “the will of the Scottish people” before being ejected from the room.
After the speech, the Prime Ministerial hopeful met with supporters and activists, posing for photographs and interacting with the crowd.
An advocate of nationalising the railways, Mr Corbyn said he hoped the Scottish Government would take control of ScotRail and said under his government, the full UK rail network would be nationalised promptly.
He said: “The Scottish Government could have taken the railways into public ownership and I advocate they do.
“The intercity routes would be publicly owned when they come into Scotland and I want all railways brought into public ownership.
“Devolution means the Scottish Government has to decide where (the £70 billion) goes and the Scottish parliament’s job is to hold the Scottish Government to account but our priorities are housing, education and our transport infrastructure including busses.
“I am a great advocate of rail services, there are across the UK about 1.5 billion journeys made a year and 4 billion bus journeys per year – there would be investment across the piece.
“Also, (there would be investment) in rail infrastructure north of the central belt.
“Trains tend to get slower the further north you go and it does need a lot of upgrading.
“The investment will be there to make sure the infrastructure improvements take place.
“The investment will also be there for housing. There are 120,000 people across Scotland on housing waiting lists and this needs to be addressed.”
Asked about how a Labour government would tackle the drug death scourge being experienced in Scotland, Mr Corbyn said he favoured a “public health approach” but he could not support decriminalising illicit substances – a stance advocated by the Scottish Government and the cross-party group Scottish Affairs Committee.
He said: “The public health argument about drug deaths is very important. The need for public health spending is a very important one.
“Drug deaths are awful, often violent and terrible for the families which see loved ones descending into drug abuse.
“Certainly with class A drugs they are very dangerous and I wouldn’t countenance the idea of making those legal.”
Stewart Hosie, the SNP’s candidate for Dundee East, said: “Labour have absolutely no credibility on this issue – the last Labour government blocked SNP requests to devolve the powers needed to allow a public sector rail operator and if re-elected they want to hand Scotland’s powers back to Westminster and have a single GB-wide company.
“I am proud that it is an SNP Government which is taking steps to ensure that the next franchise will be open to a public sector bidder.
“But only devolution of full powers over rail – including powers over Network Rail – can ensure Scotland’s rail system is the best that it can be.”
