Scottish Labour leadership candidates go head to head

The Scottish Labour leadership contest will begin tonight as candidates Kezia Dugdale and Ken Macintosh go head to head in their first debate.

Nominations for the position of leader and deputy leader closed on Friday, with MSPs Alex Rowley and Richard Baker declaring their intention to run for deputy, along with Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson.

In comments trailed ahead of the debate, Macintosh argued for a new approach to local government funding, suggesting that it is hypocritical for the SNP to argue for full fiscal responsibility while denying local authorities flexibility by freezing council tax.

He said: “John Swinney refers to the council tax freeze as a ‘partnership approach’ but local councillors have been forced to accept budgets drawn up and imposed from Holyrood while our local authorities shed jobs in their thousands and public services are stretched to breaking point.”

He added: “We need to give local councils more control including an alternative income stream to the Council tax, such as the tax on alcohol offered by social responsibility levy or the revenue from the newly devolved Crown Estate. The council tax freeze has helped families through a difficult economic time but we should allow local people to decide for themselves whether they want it to continue or not.”