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Railways Tories reject calls to bar Stagecoach tycoon Souter from milking East Coast franchise

TORIES and nationalists have rejected a plea to block a reactionary billionaire from running the troubled InterCity East Coast railway franchise.

Brian Souter’s Stagecoach group is the majority owner of Virgin Trains East Coast, which has backed out early from the franchise – which provides services on the East Coast Main Line between London and Scotland – after making losses.

Labour and trade unions have said the rescue package, the third of its kind for a holder of the franchise since privatisation, amounted to a “bailout” that would save Stagecoach and Virgin up to £2 billion.

Today, Scottish Labour called on the SNP administration at Holyrood to support a “cross-party, cross-border alliance” for public ownership of the route.

“If the Scottish government cannot bring itself to support the nationalisation of our railways, it must at least agree that Stagecoach should be barred from bidding for the route again,” said Scottish Labour rural economy spokesman Colin Smyth.

“Having mismanaged the route so badly, East Coast should be kept out of Brian Souter’s hands.”

Mr Souter has donated over £2 million to the SNP. He also funded a campaign in 2000 to retain the Local Government Act’s anti-gay section 28 as part of Scottish law. But he claims he is not homophobic and has gay friends.

The Scottish Tories leapt to his defence today, with a spokesman saying: “It’s very typical of Labour to want to stop one of Scotland’s most successful businessmen from helping out the rail network.”

Labour called on the SNP to “break its silence” over the issue, insisting that Transport Minister Humza Yousaf “can no longer hide behind weasel words.”

Rail union RMT general secretary Mick Cash said successive failures on InterCity East Coast “shame the nation that gave the railways to the world.” He voiced support for “calls to build a public and political coalition that can end this scandal once and for all.”

But Mr Yousaf’s spokesman told the Star that he would take “no lectures from Labour,” accusing the party of having blocked options for devolving powers that would allow “public-sector operators to be given a fair chance.”

“No options … should be taken off the table, including the UK government continuing to run the contract and returning the appropriate profits to Scotland,” the spokesman said.

But Labour’s position was welcomed by the Scottish Greens, whose co-convener Patrick Harvie MSP said: “Public transport should be in public hands, as Greens have long argued.

“Labour had plenty of opportunity to reverse the Tories’ privatisation of the network when in government, so their conversion to the cause is late but welcome.”

The Scottish Liberal Democrats did not respond to a request for comment.

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