Scottish Labour’s candidate for the seat lost by disgraced former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier has insisted he will campaign against controversial policies even if they are backed by the UK party.
Michael Shanks described the UK’s two-child benefit cap as a “heinous” policy at the launch of his campaign for the Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat on Wednesday and said he would vote to abolish it if he wins the most votes in the upcoming by-election.
His opposition to the policy puts him at odds with UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who has previously said he will not scrap the two-child cap if his party wins power in the next general election.
Mr Shanks also said at Wednesday’s campaign launch in Rutherglen he was opposed to the so-called bedroom tax, another welfare policy members of the UK Labour party have refused to rule out keeping if they are elected to govern.
I'll be fighting for a whole suite of measures to lift people out of poverty like Labour did when they were last in government— Michael Shanks
Questioned about his position on the UK two-child benefit cap, Mr Shanks said: “It’s a heinous policy, dreamt up by a Conservative party out of touch with people’s priorities.
“Scottish Labour is opposed to the two-child cap, we’ll continue to oppose it and I’ll campaign against it.”
Asked why he was seeking election within a party that has said it will not remove the cap, Mr Shanks replied it was committed to other reforms of benefits that would put more money in people’s pockets.
“I’ll be fighting for a whole suite of measures to lift people out of poverty like Labour did when they were last in government,” he said.
On the subject of the bedroom tax, Mr Shanks said he was opposed to that policy as well but suggested Labour might be unable to get rid of it while trying to balance the books, should the party win power.
“I don’t think the bedroom tax is a good idea and I would be campaigning against that,” he said.
“But the reality is we’re going to inherit an economic mess from the Conservative party and it’s right that an incoming Labour government is responsible with fiscal policy.
“We can’t just announce spending commitments before we’ve decided where the money would come from.”
Pressed on whether people in his constituency could be assured he would vote against policies backed by his prospective UK colleagues, Mr Shanks answered: “I will campaign for the abolishment of both these things because they are heinous policies.”
Asked how he rated his chances of winning, he replied: “People in this constituency have been let down for three years and are crying out for change.”
But First Minister Humza Yousaf took issue with Mr Shanks’ assertions about how he would vote.
Speaking to journalists at the launch of the SNP candidate Katy Loudon’s campaign less than a mile from the Labour launch on Wednesday, he said: “The voters of Rutherglen and Hamilton West have a really stark choice – they can either vote for an excellent SNP MP who will stand up for them and stand up for Scotland, or they can have a Labour MP that will do Keir Starmer’s bidding and back cruel Tory policies that have seen tens of thousands of children, many of them in this constituency, plunged into poverty.”
Challenged on Mr Shanks’ assertions that he would not back such policies, Mr Yousaf said he would only be able to vote against them if a Labour government brought them to a vote, adding: “I’m afraid the Labour MP will do whatever, I’m certain, Keir Starmer tells him to do – but not only that, you can’t vote for something if Keir Starmer refuses to even bring it to Parliament.”
It is “simply not good enough” for Mr Shanks to be his party’s candidate, while saying he would vote against them on certain issues, the First Minister said.
Mr Yousaf also committed to moving as fast as possible to hold the by-election, with the earliest possible date being October 5.
The South Lanarkshire seat is the first parliamentary test for Mr Yousaf as leader of the SNP, but also the first major election in almost 25 years where Peter Murrell will not be at the helm.
Seen as a driving force for the SNP’s formidable campaigning machine, Mr Murrell oversaw election wins in Holyrood since 2007 and in Westminster since 2015, taking the party to the greatest electoral success in its history.
Mr Murrell – who resigned earlier this year after misleading information was given to journalists about membership numbers and was subsequently arrested in the probe into SNP finances before being released without charge pending further investigation – is “one individual”, the First Minister said as he touted the party’s commitment to winning the seat vacated by Ms Ferrier.
While Mr Murrell was a “proven election winner”, the First Minister said the party’s best assets were its members, who would be “flooding the streets” in the constituency and “knocking every single door multiple times”.
Margaret Ferrier has said she will not stand in the upcoming Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election after she was ousted by 11,896 voters who signed a recall petition in protest over her Covid rule-breaking in 2020.
The former SNP MP had travelled to London and back by train at the height of pandemic in September that year after testing positive for the virus, and was subsequently handed 270 hours of community service after being convicted of breaching Covid regulations.
