THE five Scottish Labour MPs who joined a group backing the UK Government's proposed welfare cuts have been branded “frankly despicable”.
It is understood Chancellor Rachel Reeves plans to save several billion pounds by making austerity cuts to the welfare budget with health-related benefits being targeted.
MP for Dunfermline and Dollar Graeme Downie, East Renfrewshire's Blair McDougall, Coatbridge and Bellshill MP Frank McNally, Livingston MP Gregor Poynton and East Kilbride and Strathaven MP Joani Reid.
The group has named itself the “Get Britain Working” group.
But they have been under fire for the move, as Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar remains silent on the issue.
SNP MP Pete Wishart said that it’s usually the second year of Government in which Labour “starts to turn on the disabled and up the rhetoric on austerity”.
He added: “Apparently there's a group of MPs (including 5 Scots) who have grown impatient.”
SNP Work and Pensions spokesperson Kirsty Blackman (below), meanwhile, said:"It's clear the Labour Party lied to voters when it promised it wouldn't impose austerity cuts - and as a result of these appalling cuts people with extreme disabilities will be pushed into poverty.
"The Labour Government is, yet again, punching down on the poorest just as it did with the cuts to the winter fuel payment, international aid, and the two child benefit cap.
"It is staggering that right-wing Scottish Labour MPs are cheering on these cuts, which will hit their own constituents and thousands of the poorest and most vulnerable people in Scotland, on the same day that disability charities are warning about the catastrophic impact."
She added: "Anas Sarwar must come out of hiding and order Scottish Labour MPs to oppose the Labour government's shameful cuts to disabled people. He personally promised voters there would be no cuts but, yet again, his promises have turned to dust and he's nowhere to be seen.
"The SNP will stand up for disabled people and oppose these appalling Labour Party cuts every step of the way. If Anas Sarwar had an ounce of integrity or shame, he would do the same."
Coll McCail, a former member of Scottish Labour’s Executive Committee, also hit out at MPs.
He asked: "Those five Scottish MPs who have lent their backing to her cuts, one can only ask why it is that these choices always punish the working class and never the wealthy? Why must the most vulnerable pay and not multinational corporations?"
McCail added: "The answer is simple: it was the latter whose money and influence propelled Labour to office. Labour’s recent hike in defence spending will inflate the profits of multinational arms dealers. There’s plenty of money for war, but apparently no money for welfare."
