Scottish Labour leader, Jim Murphy, marked the publication at Westminster of the draft clauses to deliver the Smith Commission findings by visiting an Edinburgh work fare project.
Mr Murphy met staff and volunteers at FareShare Central & South East Scotland in Leith to look at how the work fare programme operates in practice.
FareShare is run by the Cyrenians Good Food programme, a social enterprise that provides food donated by major supermarkets which is delivered to organisations looking after people experiencing disadvantage, poverty or homelessness.
Commenting on publication of the Smith Commission Bill Mr Murphy said:
“This is the Vow delivered, a modern version of Home Rule. Labour and the other parties promised to deliver a Bill by Burns night and we’ve done that three days early.
“There are those who don’t believe the Tories will deliver on their promise. I can reassure them that Labour will, and the best way to bring more powers to the Scottish Parliament is to vote Labour at the General Election.
“The SNP are never satisfied but they cannot form a Government at UK level. They can shout at the Tories but only Labour can get rid of the Tories.
“I want to go further than Smith. I want to see the powers devolved to Edinburgh then devolved further to our cities and towns so they can develop local programmes to meet local needs.
“The current levels of youth unemployment are a scandal. Every day out of work for a young person is a day wasted and we’re anxious to get them into work programmes and on to full time employment. Only by voting Labour can the people of Scotland see that happen.”
You can read the whole content of the draft legislation here.
Photo courtesy of Garreth Lodge.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
