Christina McKelvie MSP has issued a challenge to Hamilton MSPs Tom McCabe and Michael McMahon to defy Scottish Labour’s unprincipled opposition to the Scottish Government’s proposals for setting a minimum price for alcohol.
McMahon and McCabe’s Hamilton North and Bellshill and Hamilton South constituencies respectively recorded the 13th and 15th highest levels of alcohol-related death in Scotland last year. Around twice as many people as the UK average were killed by drink in the two constituencies during 2008/09.
Two former Labour Health Ministers, Malcolm Chisholm MSP and Susan Deacon, have spoken out against their own party’s decision to vote against the measures in the government’s Alcohol Bill.
SNP MSP for Central Scotland, Ms McKelvie said:
“With their decision to oppose the Scottish Government’s proposals without even listening to the evidence in Parliament, Labour has disgracefully put party politics before public health.
“They have dismissed out of hand the advice of all four UK Chief Medical Officers, the British Medical Association, the Royal Colleges of Nursing, Physicians, Surgeons and GPs, Faculty of Public Health, British Liver Trust, Scottish Licensed Trade Association, the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland and many others at the sharp end of dealing with alcohol misuse.
“How can Michael McMahon and Tom McCabe live with this crass political opportunism when too many of their own constituents are suffering a terrible toll from alcohol misuse?
“How will they explain their party’s shameful stance to the families and communities in the Hamilton, Bellshill and Blantyre areas who have to live with the effects of drink sold at pocket money prices, whether it is anti-social behaviour or the ill-health of themselves or their loved ones?
“Malcolm Chisholm has courageously said that he will vote with the SNP Government to take serious action against the worst excesses of alcohol misuse.
“Will McMahon and McCabe join their colleague, do the right thing and vote to make a positive change to our drinking culture or will they too put short-term party political advantage before public health and public order? The people of Hamilton North and Bellshill and Hamilton South deserve to know the answer.”