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Thursday, May 22

Sarwar Silent as Welsh Labour Speak Out

JamieBy 55 Views5 Mins Read Uncategorised

Wales FM Turns on Starmer, Scottish Labour Remain in Thrall

The SNP has slammed Anas Sarwar as Wales’ Labour First Minister turned on Sir Keir Starmer in stinging speech.
 
Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan set out to separate her Welsh Labour Party from the UK Labour Government, stating that “this is honesty, this is responsibility, this is what leadership looks like”. Ms Morgan went on to say that “when we disagree, we will say it, when we see unfairness, we’ll stand up for it – when Westminster makes decisions that we think will harm the Welsh communities, we will not stay silent.”

While specifically referencing the winter fuel payment, Eluned Morgan stressed how it is “something that comes up time and again, and I hope the UK Government will rethink this policy.”

Previously Ms Morgan had said that Welsh Labour MPs were failing to stand up for Wales, a criticism levelled at Scottish Labour MPs after a series of promises to Scots were broken. These include:

  • Grangemouth being allowed to close despite Anas Sarwar saying he’d protect refinery jobs
  • Scotch Whisky taxes hiked despite commitments from Ian Murray to the sector
  • Scottish WASPI women betrayed despite Labour Party promises; a failure to back the SNP’s Scottish Visa Bill
  • investment in Scottish carbon capture diverted to England and supercomputer funding scrapped for Scotland.

Prior to the general election, Anas Sarwar boasted that he would stand up to Sir Keir Starmer when needed, but Scottish Labour MPs have since backed cuts to disability support, voted to keep the cruel two child cap, supported the removal of the winter fuel payment, and cheered on a jobs tax on business.  

Now that a senior UK Government Cabinet Minister has ruled out any changes to the cuts, the SNP’s Westminster Leader, Stephen Flynn MP, has demanded “the Labour Party must perform a full and immediate U-turn on its damaging austerity cuts to the winter fuel payment and disabled people, without further delay“.

The chaos and confusion at the centre of the Labour Government comes after Health Secretary Wes Streeting MP denied reports in The Guardian that the Government could partially reverse its cuts to the winter fuel payment by changing the threshold, in response to the hammering it got at the local elections in England.


In an interview with ITV Good Morning Britain, Mr Streeting dismissed the reports stating “I’ve read the speculative reports in the media this morning but Downing Street have been very clear that there’s no change planned“. When asked again by presenter Susanna Reid “Right, no change at all? There’s not going to be any change to the policy? So, any hope that any pensioners might get their winter fuel payment back, you’re ruling that out 100% this morning?” Mr Streeting confirmed “yes, no change that I’m aware of and that’s the line that’s come from Downing Street this morning as well“.

The Labour Party has faced a fierce backlash in Scotland after its cuts to the winter fuel payment hit around 900,000 Scottish pensioners. The SNP government has pledged to reinstate the payment in Scotland as soon as possible but the Labour Party cuts will still slash millions from the Scottish Government’s budget.

And now, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned the Labour Government has devolved an international reputation for the cuts to the winter fuel payment for pensioners, with Director Paul Johnson reporting he was told by an international insurance company chief that it was “the one thing everyone around the world knows about this government.”

Welsh Labour have now shamed Scottish Labour by taking a stand against the failings of Keir Starmer’s UK Government – something Anas Sarwar refuses to do.

While Welsh Labour might seek to speak up for Wales, only the SNP is speaking up for Scotland and protecting Scottish households from continued Westminster austerity under Starmer.

Scottish Labour’s tough talk before the election has come to nothing, as they stand by while their own party breaks promise after promise, inflicts harm on struggling families across Scotland and disregards Scotland’s interests.

If Scottish Labour cannot even be trusted to stand up to their London bosses, why on earth should the Scottish electorate believe they will stand up for them?

GRAEME

I’m Graeme’s Parliamentary Assistant based at Holyrood, but I support his constituency work as well. Having been Caseworker to an Aberdeenshire MP some years prior, joining Graeme's team in 2019 was a return to this line of work from a role in fundraising.

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