ANDY Burnham is on the edge of making “the same mistake” as Keir Starmer by seeking to “punish pensioners” by axing the triple lock, the SNP have claimed.
The Prime Minister was criticised for using his keynote Labour conference speech as a pitch for the next General Election two years away, and was warned: “Whether he likes it or not, he has a responsibility for right now.”
Dave Doogan, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said that Burnham’s plan to change the wages link in the triple lock in a bid to save money to fund a National Care Service would hit pensioners just as Starmer’s winter fuel cut did.
He said: “Andy Burnham spent most of his speech telling people what he would like to do as Prime Minister after the next election or in 10 years time – he seems to have totally forgotten that he launched a brutal coup a matter of months ago to make himself Prime Minister right now.
"Whether he likes it or not, he has a responsibility for right now. And – right now – people are genuinely scared about how they are going to cope with eye-watering energy, fuel and food bills this winter. Diesel is over £2 a litre, energy bills are set to be £1000 higher than Labour promised and food prices are set to soar again before Christmas.
"People can't afford to wait until the next election, they can't afford to wait for a 10 year plan – they need real help and real action right now. Today's speech from the Prime Minister – with no new announcements of immediate support – gave people zero comfort that the help that he promised is on the way this winter.”
Doogan accused Burnham of failing to offer new policies for immediate support because he was “too busy planning his pitch for the next election”.
The SNP MP added: “The new Prime Minister may well be a better communicator and have better TikTok videos – but his lack of action to help as the cost of living goes from bad to worse is beginning to feel very Keir Starmer. The first thing that Starmer did was to punish pensioners in the pocket, Burnham is about to make the same mistake.
"There is one thing I can agree with Andy Burnham on – ‘hope comes from honesty’.
“So let's be honest – Brexit Britain is broken beyond repair and for Scotland the route to a fairer, wealthier future is to get back into the European Union with the fresh start of independence.”
Scottish Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville echoed Doogan's assessment that Burnham was making "the same mistake" as Starmer, adding: "The UK’s public finances are undoubtedly a mess. But the blame for that lies with successive Westminster governments – it does not lie with older people who are receiving barely more than £1000 per month at most to make ends meet.
“People on lower incomes in particular who have worked all their lives rely on the state pension in old age – and they should not find their pension attacked by a Prime Minister looking to make savings.
“The Prime Minister will inevitably U-turn on these plans, and he should save older people in Scotland years of worry by just doing so now.”
