The Daily Record accuses the Daily Mail of Anti-Scots agenda in ‘Granny McTavish’ row
The Daily Record has accused the Daily Mail of twisting official statistics to label Scots as subsidy junkies.
In an article by its UK political editor, Torcuil Crichton, the Record declared: “A newspaper's bid to whip up an anti-Scots backlash over public spending backfired yesterday.
The piece read: “The London-based Daily Mail twisted official statistics to label Scots subsidy junkies - and accuse our ‘Granny McTavishes’ of living the high life.
“But last night it emerged the statistics they used selectively to brand Scots as spongers also showed the biggest public spending is in London.
“And even David Cameron's official spokesman had to admit: ‘It's not actually a Scottish-English argument’."
The Trinity Mirror-owned tabloid said that the Daily Mail’s front page blaring "A Deeply Divided Kingdom" was not run in its Scottish edition - and a vitriolic article inside was considerably toned down north of the Border.
According to the Daily Record: “The row boiled over as the Treasury's annual Public Expenditure Statistics showed projected UK Government spending per person was £8588 in England last year but £10,212 in Scotland.
“However, spending was also higher in Wales (£9829) and Northern Ireland (£10,706). And when the figures are analysed, they show the spending per head in London is £10,256.”
The tabloid reported that Tory MPs seized on the statistics to attack Scots policies which are a result of devolution, such as free prescriptions and university tuition.
“But Scottish finance secretary John Swinney said other Treasury statistics showed a very different picture.”
“Swinney said: ‘The real figures show public spending in Scotland is equivalent to 47.3 per cent of GDP in 2009-10 - actually less than the 47.6 per cent for the UK economy.
"’Scotland generated 9.4 per cent of UK tax with the 8.4 per cent of the population - the equivalent of £1000 extra for every man, woman and child in Scotland’."