Labour hits SNP with `tax bomb'

THE GOVERNMENT is to use a carbon copy of the Conservatives' 1992 "Tax Bombshell" campaign to combat the growing threat from the Scottish Nationalist Party north of the border.

The move, which has provoked an angry response from the nationalists, reflects the growing alarm in government ranks at the inroads being made by the SNP ahead of next year's elections to the Scottish Parliament.

Helen Liddell, the new minister of state at the Scottish Office, took off the gloves, arguing: "The nationalists have been getting an easy ride but the phoney war is over. We are going to subject them to a summer of detailed scrutiny."

Ms Liddell - dubbed Labour's "Nat-buster" - added that the SNP's policy agenda "would cost the tax-payer 15p more in the pound" in taxation.

And she claimed that fears about Scottish independence would add to instability and lack of confidence in Scotland's economic future. "That instability keeps inward investors away", she said.

The 15p in the pound increase was, she said, arrived at by costing pledges and aspirations in SNP policy documents. That was the method deployed by Conservative Central Office in 1992 and again in 1997.

The claims, which bear a striking similarity to the Tory attacks on Labour, particularly in 1992, represent a high-risk strategy. When the Tories attacked Labour's devolution plans in 1997, labelling them the "Tartan Tax", their campaign failed to avert a disastrous election result.

Ms Liddell also conceded that Labour had not fully grappled with Scotland's separate identity. She argued that "the separatists try to suggest that you cannot be Scottish without supporting them. We have to address the nature of Scottishness".

The SNP hit back with a strong attack on the new minister. Michael Russell, the party's chief executive, said: "Helen Liddell is lying about SNP policies, in exactly the same way as Tony Blair accused the Tories of lying about Labour policies before the last election.

"Labour lying about the SNP is born out of panic, just as Tory lying about Labour was. Helen Liddell has adopted the Tory tactics of twisting the truth about the opposition, which shows just how out of touch with Scotland she is."

It was, one senior SNP source argued, absurd to assume that all the party's policies would be implemented in one go.

Last week the SNP took the lead over Labour in voting intentions for a Scottish Parliament, according to an ICM poll for the Scotsman. That follows Tony Blair's visit, which took place three days before the reshuffle.