Labour 'has not lived up to Foot's legacy'

Published on Friday 5 March 2010 21:49

LABOUR have been accused of not living up to the values of the party's late leader Michael Foot.

Liberal Democrat MP Michael Moore said Mr Foot, who died earlier this week, had given the party a "great legacy in values".

But he said the gap between the richest and poorest had grown since Labour came to power in 1979.

Mr Moore, the MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, said: "Michael Foot gave Labour a great legacy in values, if not in political achievement.

"Labour ought to reflect that, all this time later, they have not themselves lived up to that promise."

Mr Moore was speaking yesterday at the Scottish Liberal Democrats' spring conference in Perth.

He went on: "Isn't it a scandal that the same issues of fairness that were relevant when the Tories were kicked out in 1997 are still relevant today in 2010?

"In '97, Labour said things can only get better, so they almost immediately stripped the benefits away from single parents."

Mr Moore added that child poverty had got worse over the past five years – despite a pledge to halve it by this year.

He also highlighted Lib Dem proposals to increase to 10,000 the amount people could earn without paying income tax.