LABOUR will give free bus travel to apprentices to get to work in a package of measures to help working Scots, Jim Murphy has said.

 

The Scottish Labour leader was in London to speak about how he would spend cash that comes to Scotland as a result of tax changes if Labour wins the General Election.

He said the plans were about the pooling and sharing of UK resources and using them to help those when needed it most.

He said the cash was coming from Labour proposals to cut tax relief on pensions for the highest earners.

He said it would be used to give young men and women help to get a career started.

Mr Murphy said: "Every time I meet young apprentices I ask them what we can do to help them and they reply that one of the biggest pressures of getting to work is the cost of travel. If you were on the apprentice minimum wage you could spend 2 hours a day working just to afford the bus fare to and from work.

"So today I can announce we will offer free bus travel to all apprentices in Scotland, a financial boost for as many as 40,000 young people."

He said Scotland would have an extra £200m a year as a result of the tax changes Labour proposed.

Some would be spent on his earlier pledge of a fund of £1600 each for every 18 or 19 year old not in university, college or a Modern Apprenticeship to help with finding work or starting a business.

He said millions of pounds would go into colleges to increase student places.

He said: "The number of students in Scottish colleges fell by over 100,000 at the very time when the labour market demanded investment in skills.

"Labour will begin to undo that damage on our colleges, our workforce and our economy.

"We will invest more than £100 million more in Scotland's colleges over the next parliament, starting to roll-back the cuts made in recent years."

Mr Murphy said he had been criticised in the past for wanting to spend proceeds of a mansion tax mostly raised in London to pay for Scots nurses, but was unrepentant.

He said: "Places like this (London), engines of wealth creation, where people are doing so well they are stretching away from the rest of society, some of that success should be shared with their fellow citizens.

"But more importantly I seek redistribution from those who have the most to those who have the least to tackle that very inequality in the first place."