JOHN Swinney has accused Anas Sarwar of “trying to pretend to be the SNP” after the Scottish Labour leader came out in support of a raft of the party’s policies.
The First Minister took aim at the Labour MSP after he told the BBC he backed Scotland’s free tuition fees, free prescriptions, the baby boxes, free school lunches, bus passes and the Scottish Child Payment.
However, Sarwar further said: “These are important policies that an incoming Scottish Labour government will maintain, but we also need to do much more to improve outcomes for Scots.
“Free prescriptions are welcome but they need to be tied to better health outcomes, and free tuition is positive but we need to make sure the education on offer is world class for all.
“That’s why a Scottish Labour government will never use these positive policy decisions as fig leaves to hide poor outcomes for Scots and that is why Scottish Labour will set out its plans for better outcomes for every Scot.”
On Tuesday, Sarwar wrote to the directors of every Scottish university affirming his support for free tuition, but also calling for reform to allow every single Scots schoolchild to go to university if they choose. As it stands, there are only a limited number of funded free places per year.
Responding, the First Minister said: "Anas Sarwar spent last week pretending that he was an ally of Nigel Farage, this week he is trying to pretend to be the SNP by adopting lots of SNP policies.
"What that demonstrates is that Anas Sarwar is ashamed of being a representative of the Labour Party, and no wonder because they have been a disaster in government."
SNP MSP James Dornan added: “Of course there is another, more sensible, way to keep SNP benefits rather than trusting the word of the guy who said he would save Grangemouth, keep the Winter Fuel Payment, abolish the two child cap, and stand up to [Keir] Starmer.”
Sarwar has come under heavy fire in recent days for his broken pledge on Grangemouth, Scotland’s last oil refinery.
Ahead of the 2024 General Election, the MSP claimed a UK Labour government would step in and save jobs at Grangemouth with “hundreds of millions” of pounds.
However, since taking power the money has not materialised and hundreds of workers have instead received redundancy letters.
The Scottish Labour leader told BBC Scotland on Monday there has been “nowhere near enough progress” on supporting workers at the plant.
“Where we are right now is not good enough,” he said.
“We need to see more progress and we need to see a stronger response going into the future.”
However, Unite’s Scottish secretary, Derek Thomson, claimed there had been “radio silence” from Sarwar on the closure of the refinery.
