East Lothian Labour
Scottish Labour Party Leader Kezia Dugdale visited the award winning Pear Tree Nursery in Haddington with Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour Party Candidate for East Lothian at the upcoming Scottish Parliament elections and MSP for the County from 2007 -; 2016, to talk about Labour’s plan to invest in East Lothian’s young people and put the county’s kids before cuts.
On the visit to the private day nursery which offers child care for children aged from 3 months to 5 years, and which is attended by his grandchildren, Iain Gray said:
“I was delighted to welcome Kezia to Haddington this morning and visit the award winning Pear Tree Nursery. The nursery and the staff who work there do everything they can to give the children who go to Nursery here in Haddington the best possible start in life and this is reflected in the many accolades and awards which have been presented to the nursery as well as the individual staff who work there.
“Scottish Labour and I will always work to put our young people first and this is why we are calling for the SNP to support us in arguing that the richest in society should pay their fair share of tax instead of forcing out children to pay the price of austerity cuts.
“Under the SNP education has suffered with over 4,000 less teachers, 152,000 less college places and East Lothian does not receive one penny of the Scottish Government attainment fund to help cut the gap in achievement between the richest and the rest in our schools. We are seeing fewer classroom assistants, fewer specialist teachers and fewer materials in our schools and this is putting at risk the success of so many young people across East Lothian. I am clear that talent, work ethic and potential should define a child’s life chances, not how much money their parents have.
“Faced with a choice between using the powers of the Scottish Parliament to invest in education or carrying on with the cuts, Labour will use the powers.”
Scottish Labour Party Leader Kezia Dugdale MSP said:
“The SNP won’t ask the richest 1% to pay more tax but they will ask our children to pay the price of cuts. We have been very clear -; Labour will ask those earning more than £150,000 a year to pay a 50p top rate of tax so we can invest in our schools. If we want Scotland to have a world class education system then somebody has to pay for it. We need to invest in our schools, not carry on with the cuts.
“Last year the SNP attacked austerity, now they just attack Labour’s plan to tax the richest to end austerity. Nicola Sturgeon has spent her whole career arguing for more powers to stop the cuts and ask the richest to pay their fair share. Yet now that the Scottish Parliament has those powers the SNP are passing on the cuts and won’t ask the richest 1% to pay more.”