Labour in Disarray Over Welfare Cuts

Sarwar Puts Party Before Country Yet Again

The SNP has called on Anas Sarwar to find a backbone and oppose the Labour UK Government’s planned welfare cuts, after several sitting MSPs criticised the plans and a former senior MSP resigned his party membership.

Senior MSP and former leadership contender Monica Lennon said the UK Government “is going in the wrong direction” while Labour’s public health spokesperson has branded this a return to austerity, saying “we cannot balance the books on the backs of people who require benefits just to have a passable standard of living”.

This follows the resignation of former Labour MSP Neil Findlay from the party, who wrote to Keir Starmer saying “I can no longer remain a member of a party that lied to the British people at the last election and which regularly betrays the people who voted for it”.

Scottish Labour MP Brian Leishman has also described the cuts as “wrong”, saying the move represents a “race to the bottom of relentless cuts and austerity”.

Despite this internal dissent, Anas Sarwar has yet to comment on the plans, saying prior to Liz Kendall’s statement that the mooted £5 billion worth of cuts does not amount to austerity.

The SNP has challenged Keir Starmer to immediately publish the impact assessment of cuts to disabled people – warning the failure to do so is “deeply cynical” and “would break yet another promise to voters – the pledge to ensure maximum transparency”.

The call comes after the UK Government refused to publish an equality and poverty impact assessment alongside its announcement, despite promising voters they would deliver “a transparency revolution” during the UK general election.

Analysis by the Resolution Foundation has revealed that up to 1.2 million disabled people could lose between £4200 and £6300 per year as a result of the Labour Party cuts to Personal Independence Payments. Disability charities have hit out at the failure to publish the impact assessments, which would show how many disabled people will be hit by the cuts and how badly they will increase poverty and inequality in the UK. 

The Labour government pulled the same trick when it cut the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners, and refused to publish an assessment of the impact the cuts would have.