ANAS Sarwar has said people will find Keir Starmer’s warning of a “painful” first Budget “quite refreshing”.
The Scottish Labour leader spoke at length with reporters at Holyrood alongside MSP Michael Marra about the SNP’s “financial mismanagement” as the Prime Minister gave a doom and gloom speech at Downing Street where he said people would have to accept “short-term pain for the long-term good”.
Starmer added he will not shy away from making “unpopular decisions”.
Asked about whether voters will get sick of such negativity from Starmer and whether it would harm his party in the future, Sarwar said he thought people would actually find the PM’s approach “refreshing”.
Sarwar said: “I think voters will think it’s quite refreshing actually to have politicians that are being upfront, truthful and not trying to downplay the situation we are in, but are serious and grown up about how we respond to it.
“I think if there’s one thing in particular one thing people have sensed over the last seven or eight weeks of our Labour government is both in terms of tone, body language, and in terms of decision making, this is a very different, serious, grown up government and the response to the riots [in England and Northern Ireland] is a good example of that and the determination to reset the relationship with devolved governments is a good example of that as well.”
On Monday, Sarwar said UK Government cuts are “not related” to cuts in Scotland, a claim he reiterated several times to a round-table of journalists at the Scottish Parliament as his party released a briefing document on the SNP’s “incompetent handling” of taxpayers’ money.
The cut to the universal Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) for pensioners from the Labour government, made in an effort to begin to plug what Chancellor Rachel Reeves called a £22 billion black hole in the UK’s finances, means the Scottish Government will not receive an estimated £140-160 million to fund the WFP north of the Border.
Spending by the UK Government directly impacts on Scottish Government funding in this way due to the "Barnett Consequentials" system.
The Scottish Government subsequently announced it had been left with no choice but to replicate the UK Government’s decision when the benefit becomes devolved later this year.
But apart from affairs around the WFP, Sarwar continued to insist cuts made in Edinburgh were nothing to do with those made in London.
He stuck by the claims even though Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC earlier this year that “all roads lead back to Westminster” when he was talking about the state of the NHS.
Sarwar told The National: “It feels like for the SNP, all excuses lead to Westminster. People have seen through it.
“We have been very clear there comes a point where governments have to take responsibility. Of course, the macroeconomics and the state of the UK finances and the state of the UK economy in terms of those bits that are reserved, have an impact on what’s available for public spending and […] I’m not going to try and downplay the damage of the Tories, the Tories have cause untold damage to our country including to Scotland over the last 14 years.
“But the idea that after 17 years of government, the reason why Creative Scotland’s budget has been cut, why NatureScot’s budget has been cut and why 450 teachers are being taken away from Glasgow and these emergency letters have gone to every department across the Scottish Government, is the result of a Labour Party government of seven weeks and not an SNP Government in power for 17 years is frankly laughable and absurd.”
In a letter last week, Finance Secretary Shona Robison set out her intention to make a speech to Parliament next month about "profound" financial difficulties Scotland is facing.
Sarwar was pressed repeatedly on whether he asked the Chancellor not to go ahead with cutting the WFP but he dodged the question every time.
While he said he had had discussions with Reeves on the topic, he seemed to suggest there was no way he could influence her.
“The decision has been made. I don’t get a sense there’s going to be a change in that decision,” Sarwar said.
“Rightly, she [Reeves] said that we have to accelerate the opportunities particularly for Scotland around GB Energy and those investments because we have disproportionate levels of fuel poverty in certain parts of Scotland but we also have disproportionate levels of opportunity in Scotland around that clean energy revolution.”
Asked if he “gave up” in trying to change Reeves’ mind, he said: “I wouldn’t frame it in that language.”
