IAN Murray has been forced to retract allegations he made that a journalist “made up” a story he would have a multi-million pound war chest to tackle poverty.
In a TV interview on Sunday, Murray furiously hit back after he was confronted with press reports which had set out how Labour planned to give the Scotland Office £150m to tackle poverty.
The story had initially run in the Daily Record before the election and was followed up in its sister title the Sunday Mail in August, after the election.
There was no previous public suggestion from Murray or Labour the stories were wrong.
But asked about them on the BBC Sunday Show by host Martin Geissler, Murray accused the journalist of having fabricated the figure.
In a statement released through a spokesperson later on Sunday, Murray conceded the figure had been based on past “Levelling Up” funds allocated to Scotland which it had been envisaged the Scotland Office could repurpose.
Now he has admitted the numbers were “not made up”.
Murray told the Daily Record on Monday: “The point I was trying to make was we don’t have any money yet, in the sense of the Scotland Office being a spending department.
“The figures that are in the public domain were calculated using previous structural funds money which was in the manifesto.”
The plans would require the Scotland Office to become a “spending department” which would require changes to be brought about in a Budget or a similar fiscal event.
They would remain controversial if they are followed through because they would be seen by critics to be bypassing the devolution settlement by allowing the UK Government to spend money in Scotland without consulting Holyrood in devolved areas of policy.
