THE vast majority of Scots believe Anas Sarwar doesn’t stand up to Keir Starmer for the benefit of Scotland, according to a new poll.
A Find Out Now survey of 1774 Scottish adults commissioned by The National revealed that 82% of Scots believe the Scottish Labour leader doesn’t stand up to the Prime Minister when don’t knows are removed, compared with just 18% who think he does.
It comes as Sarwar has faced increased scrutiny in the past few months amid a series of unpopular policy decisions by the new Labour Government – including cutting the Winter Fuel Payment for millions of pensions, keeping the two-child benefit cap and scrapping compensation for Waspi women.
While the Scottish Labour leader has come out against some of the decisions, support for the party north of the border has dropped significantly since last July’s General Election win – with a recent poll suggesting the SNP would make up the bulk of a pro-independence majority after the next Holyrood election.
That same survey suggested Labour would return just 19 MSPs, a drop of three from their current total and a historic low.
Colette Stevenson MSP said Sarwar has an “inability” to stand up for Scotland against the “reckless decisions” of the Labour Government.
"The public rightly judge politicians by their actions - and so far, Scottish Labour MPs and MSPs have voted to keep the Two Child Cap and to cut the Winter Fuel Payment for nearly a million Scottish pensioners,” he said.
"The SNP always put Scotland first. Any suggestion that Scottish Labour does the same has been roundly quashed by the actions of their elected politicians at the first sniff of political power."
Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay (above), meanwhile, said: "If Anas Sarwar is standing up to the Prime Minister then he's obviously having very little effect. We all remember him saying that we should read his lips and that there would be no more austerity under Labour, but that's far from what has happened.
"From keeping the punishing and cruel two child cap to betraying the WASPI women and plunging pensioners into fuel poverty by cutting Winter Fuel Payments, Keir Starmer has inflicted one blow after another on households and families across Scotland.
"That's not what people thought they were getting when they voted for change, which is clear from the collapse in polling that this government has seen after only a few months in power.
"It doesn't need to be this way. The UK government has the power to tax the wealthy, invest in services and our communities and end the cuts for good. Anas Sarwar knows that too, so why is he continuing to back a Starmer-led government that is offering one U-turn and cut after another?
"What is becoming clearer every day is how much more we could do with the powers of a normal country.
"We don't need to settle for badly managed decline and poverty from Downing Street when we could be building a fairer, greener future made here in Scotland."
Scottish Labour have been approached for comment.
