Labour accuses Alex Salmond of keeping quiet on true cost of SNP policies Published on Wednesday 25 January 2012 02:09 SCOTTISH Labour has signalled its intention to move away from backing free university tuition and prescriptions, with the party's Scotland spokeswoman at Westminster claiming Alex Salmond "doesn't tell people the real costs" of the policies. Shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran attacked the First Minister's stance on higher education funding as sending "rich kids to university" after Mr Salmond insisted his SNP administration was fairer and more progressive than the UK government because it protected universal benefits. Ms Curran, speaking ahead of today's stage one debate of the Budget bill at Holyrood, said the SNP's free prescriptions, free tuition for Scottish residents and council tax freeze had limited benefit for the neediest, since they were not targeted, and unnecessarily benefited the richest. The Labour MP said the First Minister, who made the claims about a more progressive Scotland in a keynote lecture in London last night, had failed to address "fundamental challenges" over public services funding. Ms Curran said SNP government policies damaged the poorest by cutting college budgets, and failing to invest adequately in childcare. She claimed child poverty had increased under the SNP because of lack of investment in childcare and nursery education, and that Mr Salmond's administration had cut spending on further education by 20 per cent, harming the chances of the poorest to gain qualifications for university and to secure better jobs. "Alex Salmond wants to tell people what they can get for free, but he doesn't tell people what the real costs are," she said. The test for anyone truly progressive is not whether you get rich kids to university, it's whether you get everyone to university. That's the purest test of progressive politics. Ms Curran went on to claim that Mr Salmond had failed to explain in any detail what an independent Scotland's welfare policies, social security payments and tax regime would be. She said: "Tell me in what way Alex Salmond wants to redistribute resources to the poorest people in Scotland, from the better off to the worst off? He has never advocated a policy like that. However, senior SNP MSP John Wilson accused Ms Curran of "hypocrisy" over her comments and said Scottish Labour was "travelling in the same direction" as the Conservatives over cuts to public services and free university tuition. Mr Wilson, deputy head of Holyrood's economy committee, said: "Margaret Curran's comments highlights the hypocrisy of a Labour Party that introduced tuition fees and would not commit to free prescriptions. The SNP government has made progress towards a society that cares for the disadvantaged through policies such as free university tuition for young people. The Labour Party has to address the message that it's putting out at UK level, such as following the same direction as the Tories over the economy. Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont criticised Mr Salmond for wanting to "liberate the English people from themselves." She said: "Rather than trying to set a progressive example for others, Alex Salmond could start by implementing some progressive ideas here that would deal with the rising level of child poverty and the 200 people a day losing their jobs." Ms Lamont's comments came as Scottish Trades Union Congress general secretary Grahame Smith called for the small business bonus scheme to be scrapped, saying it was "was not having the desired effect on growth and jobs."