By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 13 May 2013
Both sides in Scotland’s independence referendum campaign today announced strategy shifts to extend their appeal to fresh groups of voters.
Former UK prime minister Gordon Brown, in a rare intervention in domestic politics, launched a Labour-only body, United with Labour. It is aimed at mobilising more traditional Labour supporters, notably the trade unions, who have baulked at working alongside the Conservatives in the pro-union campaign, Better Together.
Meanwhile, the Scottish National Party’s deputy leader, Nicola Sturgeon, promised sweeping reforms of benefits policy in an independent Scotland, with payments targeted at individual claimants rather than households. The initiative is designed to appeal particularly to women voters, whom the polls suggest are currently less likely than men to support independence.
Brown, who is a more popular politician in Scotland than he is in the rest of the UK, sought to deflect criticism of the No campaign’s largely negative tone by offering the theme of a union based on principles of social justice. ‘Pooling and sharing resources gets the best for everyone,’ he said.
He stressed his pride in being Scottish and in raising his family in Scotland, yet insisted: ‘We achieve more together, working together, than by working on our own.’
Despite his promise of ‘a positive, principled, forward-looking case’ for the union, Brown did not hesitate to attack SNP plans, contending that a proposed cut in corporation tax would result in ‘a race to the bottom’ between tax jurisdictions competing for mobile investment. He also disputed whether an independent Scotland could afford its pension and welfare commitments without raising taxes and challenged SNP plans to remain in the sterling zone.
Sturgeon struck back by dismissing as ‘preposterous’ Labour claims that Scotland would have to put up taxes to afford its benefits bill. She said that people would vote for independence if they could be convinced that it meant a fairer and wealthier country, and heralded a series of announcements ahead to build that positive vision.
Having already promised to end the ‘bedroom tax’, the SNP was now rolling out reforms of single household benefit payments that reinforce the caricature of the male breadwinner, she said.
‘The new Universal Credit system discriminates against women. It undermines the independence of women. Unlike the current system, which makes payments to individual claimants, it will be paid in one single household amount which will, more often than not, mean to the man in a household,’ she said.
Sturgeon also said the SNP would equalise the earnings disregard between first and second earners, ‘making work more attractive for women, more rewarding for women and more likely to lift children out of poverty’.
