SCOTTISH Labour’s deputy leader has been panned for her performance on the BBC’s Debate Night programme.
Jackie Baillie was asked by an audience member what the removal of the universal Winter Fuel Payment in England and Wales said about Labour’s “priorities”.
Following the cut by Keir Starmer’s party, the Scottish Government said it had been left with “no choice” but to replicate the decision north of the Border.
“Anas Sarwar said: ‘read my lips, no austerity under Labour’ - did we misread his lips that night?” “This is not a decision that anybody welcomes” Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie responds to the audience on the party’s scrapping of winter fuel payments for millions#bbcdn pic.twitter.com/QWVy0Lq1G4
— BBC Debate Night (@bbcdebatenight) September 18, 2024
Host Martin Geissler then reminded Jackie Baillie of Sarwar’s promise when he said: “Read my lips. No austerity under Labour.”
Asked if people had “misread” the Scottish Labour leader’s comments, Baillie replied: “No I don’t think you did. And I think, you know, this is not a decision that anybody welcomes.
“Even, you know, the Labour Government that took the decision didn’t want to do it. We were faced with a £22 billion black hole.”
The audience could then be heard groaning before Baillie asked them to “let me finish” and that the reality was the “Tories hid what was going on”.
“That’s the reality. We have said we want to make sure that the fundamentals in both the Budget and in the economy work,” she added.
“It’s not a choice I would have wanted to make. I’ve got to be honest with you about that but what we need to do is protect those pensioners who are absolutely the worst-off.”
SNP MP for Perth and Kinross-shire Pete Wishart was among those to criticise Baillie for her comments.
Writing on Twitter/X, he said: “Poor Jackie Baillie dying a (very cold) death on @bbcdebatenight. It is almost cruel…”
It comes the day after support for Scottish Labour plummeted in a new poll.
We told how a Survation survey commissioned by Culture Secretary Angus Robertson’s firm Progress Scotland found Scottish Labour’s support has fallen by nine points since May this year.
