GORDON Brown has promised voters that a Labour government will give foodbanks in Scotland £1 million to “ensure they are better stocked”, within 24 hours of being elected.

It is not clear in what capacity Brown is making these promises.

The former prime minister and former MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath was speaking at a meeting of activists in Fife last night. As well as the money for stock, Brown said that Labour would:

- Offer assistance with bus fares for people in villages and remote areas who live far from foodbanks

- Offer help with fuel bills and cookers to produce hot food;

- Ensure loans were protected from pay-day lenders.



None of the proposals mentioned last night appear in the Scottish Labour manifesto or in the UK wide Labour Party manifesto. It is also not clear if these proposals are UK wide of for Scotland only.

The meeting, in Kirkcaldy Old Kirk, was attended by Labour’s deputy leader in Scotland Kezia Dugdale and former first minister Henry McLeish. It was Brown’s third major intervention of the campaign.

Brown’s late intervention in the Scottish independence referendum campaign was considered decisive by Labour, with one party source telling the Independent that it was the stump speech in the final weeks by the former prime minister that stopped more Labour voters switching to Yes.

While Brown may have “saved the union” his party has been suffering terribly in the polls ever since, with analysts predicting that Labour could lose all but two seats in the General Election.

In the speech, Brown said that had he still been in power, more would have been done to tackle poverty.

“One of the most damning statistics is that Scotland now have more relying on foodbanks than London, despite London having twice the population,” he said.

“We now have food bank poverty which comes on top of payday lender poverty, bedroom tax poverty, zero hours contract poverty, welfare cuts poverty and it is time for new radical measures.

“I cannot understand why eight years into their Scottish government the SNP has done so little when they have the power to do so and I cannot understand why the Conservative government has been allowed to get away with doing even less.

“If Jim Murphy or I had been in a position of authority in the Scottish or UK governments we would have acted long before now.”

Scottish Labour will be hoping Brown’s intervention can help them out of the SNP’s shadow. Labour sources have expressed frustration that the media and people on the street are talking about a Labour-SNP deal.

Brown said: “Others will want to spend their time talking about deals, hung parliaments, coalitions – obsessed with the insider talk of backroom negotiations at Westminster.

“We will continue to talk about what really matters – jobs, poverty, the neglect of the NHS, inequality and the need for new housing. And we will act immediately to tackle these abuses.

“Others want this to be the constitutional election – we believe this is the social justice election. We put social justice first and

Labour is Scotland’s party of social justice and fairness.”

Brown accused the SNP of exploiting people living in poverty as part of a “pursuit of independence”.

“They don’t want to act because they want to prove Westminster is to blame for refusing to act. But when they say they won’t let Westminster off the hook they leave thousands of poor Scots on the hook. It suggests their aim is not ending poverty but exploiting poverty, their priority not to act in pursuit of social justice but to act in pursuit of independence.

RESPONDING to Brown’s claim, Banff and Buchan SNP candidate Dr Eilidh Whiteford said:

“The SNP Government has already provided more than

£1 million to support the work of foodbanks, but far more critical is the need to bring an end to the austerity that has seen such a dramatic rise in their use.

As long as Labour remain committed to more austerity cuts, they simply cannot be taken seriously on this issue.

“And while it was the SNP who acted to mitigate the bedroom tax in Scotland, Labour couldn’t even bring themselves to oppose the shameful policy until

Ed Miliband finished making up his mind.

“The SNP manifesto this week made clear that SNP MPs will oppose further cuts to Child Benefit and Tax Credits and support increasing free childcare to 30 hours per week by 2020.

“A strong team of SNP MPs will work with progressive voices across the UK to take action that helps tackle the scourge of child poverty and foodbank use.”

The Labour Party’s UK press office did not respond to requests for more information.

Brown’s speech comes ahead of a new campaign by Shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran to repeal the Scottish Government’s Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.

Curran has written a letter to football fans calling the law “an embarrassment” and calls for its repeal to “lift the cloud of suspicion that currently hangs over football fans”.