Brown "Throws Down Gauntlet" to SNP

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is outlining Labour's plans to increase NHS funding.

The Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP says this will be the "social justice election" as he delivers a speech in Edinburgh.

Labour say they'll spend an additional £250million on the health service, taking the annual total to £12.45 billion.

That equates to £5,000 a year for every family in Scotland.

Mr Brown will say the SNP are only interested in coalition talks, backroom dals and and the prospect of a hung parliament, not tackling poverty and deprivation.

The departing MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath will say each political party should be judged on whether they will offer real change for the people of Scotland.

Speaking at an event in Liberton High School, Edinburgh, he will add: "The Scottish Government has chosen  to protect the NHS in Scotland even less than the shoddy protection the Tories have given it in England.

 "Instead, the SNP have diverted money allocated by the Barnett formula that could have been spent on the NHS in pursuit of their constitutional and other goals.

"When people want to know how we can tackle poverty, injustice, low pay and the neglect of the NHS, the SNP talk incessantly about deals, coalitions and hung parliaments.

"Labour believes in a different approach which focusses on the social and economic change we can deliver. 

"The last Labour government is virtually doubled NHS spending, increasing it in real terms by 82 percent between 1997 and 2010, raising expenditure after inflation from £6.4 billion to £11.6 billion.

"The people of Scotland need and deserve more. Under Jim Murphy, the Labour Party will talk about only the critical issues - the NHS, poverty, injustice, inequality, deprivation, housing waiting lists and youth unemployment. This should be and will be the social justice election.

"I argued during the referendum that it was not a Scotland v Britain battle but about two visions of Scotland’s future.

"Now I argue that this election should not just be about deals between the parties. It is about meeting people's demands for change and who is best at achieving fairness.
 
"Between now and May 7, my colleagues and I will talk about ending the the need for food banks, stopping abuses like the bedroom tax, chasing pay day lenders out of Scotland and ending pensioner and child poverty. 

"There is good reason why the SNP cannot match us on social justice. They have refused to embrace the measures we need to deal with poverty and injustice - the bankers' bonus tax, the mansion tax, the top rate tax rise, the cut in pension tax relief for high earners - ?that raise the money necessary to pay for our radical plans to improve the NHS and education and waging war on poverty.

"The Labour Party that took 200,000 Scottish pensioners out of poverty, took 200,000 children out of poverty and doubled spending on the NHS and education will show day by day - and then with the Scottish manifesto - that our priority is to deliver social justice in Scotland."