WHILE Keir Starmer will be left gleeful at the outcome of the latest Tory leadership vote, his colleagues in Scotland are still wringing their hands over the Winter Fuel Payment.
John Swinney made a clever play by putting Labour’s cuts to the pensioners’ heating grant to a vote in Holyrood on Tuesday.
The SNP’s motion, calling on the UK Government to scrap the cut which is expected to affect around 900,000 Scottish pensioners, passed – with only Labour opposing.
It put Sarwar’s troops in the bizarre position of effectively backing a cut to a policy implemented by the last Labour government – under Gordon Brown (below), no less.
The Winter Fuel Payment debacle is clearly costing Labour votes. Just look to a string of recent by-election losses for the party.
They want to be on the up. With the 2026 Holyrood election approaching, Sarwar has his sights set on becoming the next first minister.
One of the things that has served Scottish Labour well recently is highlighting differences between them and their UK colleagues.
Michael Shanks (below), in his successful campaign at the Rutherglen by-election gave it big licks about how he’d stand up to the Labour leadership if he disagreed with them.
Senior UK Labour figures I’ve spoken to in the past are keen to portray this as a good thing, an example of how devolution is supposed to work.
But somehow this week Sarwar found himself whipping MSPs to vote for a cut most, if not all of them, are opposed to – just to avoid confronting their London bosses.
To put the scale of the rebellion against Sarwar (below) in context, when the Winter Fuel Payment cuts were put to a vote in Westminster, the size of the genuine rebellion against Starmer was just 10% of Labour MPs.
In Holyrood this week it was almost a third. That’s a fairly significant challenge to Sarwar’s authority.
While it’s not big enough to topple him, it makes Labour look divided while defending a policy which is deeply unpopular with that group of voters most inclined to actually get out and cast their ballots – pensioners.
For UK Labour, that’s a gamble worth taking in their irrepressible drive to balance the books. They don’t need to worry about another election until 2029.
Sarwar has to worry about winning one in about 18 months. He might find his dreams of Bute House dashed if he keeps this up.
