THE Labour Party has been branded a “disgrace” and accused of making “disastrous” decisions, by John Swinney following the UK Government cutting billions of pounds from the welfare budget.
The First Minister said Anas Sarwar’s words “count for absolutely nothing” as he accused the UK Government of a return to austerity – something the Scottish Labour leader had promised would not happen during the General Election campaign.
Speaking to reporters in Grangemouth on Wednesday, Swinney said Keir Starmer’s Government wants to introduce cuts to the welfare budget that would punish “the most vulnerable in our society”.
On Tuesday, UK Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced £5 billion worth of proposed welfare cuts, largely stemming from a big reduction in support for those off work due to disability and ill health.
During the General Election campaign last year, Sarwar told voters during a BBC debate: “Read my lips: no austerity under Labour.”
Swinney said the move to clamp down on welfare claimants shows Sarwar (below) had broken his election pledge.
“We now know that Anas Sarwar’s words count for absolutely nothing,” he said.
“This is the return to austerity that I told everybody would happen unless some of the hard realities of the public finances were addressed.
“Labour are interested now in returning austerity and punishing the most vulnerable in our society. What disgrace the Labour Party has become.”
The First Minister said he was “not surprised” the cuts led to Neil Findlay quitting the party on Wednesday morning.
The former Labour MSP is among a rising number of party members speaking out against the UK Government’s decision.
Swinney said he “could not fathom what the Labour Government thinks it is doing”.
He added: “I think it’s made a number of huge mistakes already. The winter fuel cut was a disastrous mistake for the Labour Government to make.
“That proposal was offered to the Tories on countless occasions and they never took it.
“The Labour Party has taken that cut and they’ve now taken cuts to disability benefits, which even the Tories didn’t do.”
The SNP claims the welfare budget cuts, among other measures, amount to austerity – something that has been rejected by Sarwar but echoed by a senior member of his team at Holyrood.
Carol Mochan (above), Scottish Labour’s public health spokesperson, contradicted her boss in a social media post on the welfare cuts.
She wrote: “Austerity has never been a sustainable path to growth. We cannot balance the books on the backs of people who require benefits just to have a passable standard of living.”
Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie said it is right that the UK Government are removing the “barriers that prevent people from being able to work”.
She said: “This is desperate fearmongering from dishonest John.
“The Labour government decisively ended Tory austerity and delivered a record budget for Scotland, boosting funding by £5.2 billion – more money for our NHS, our schools and our devolved social security system.
“The SNP voted against Labour’s record budget settlement in the House of Commons and put forward plans that would have cut funding for Scotland by over £600 million.
“It’s right that we remove the barriers that prevent people from being able to work, but the SNP must step up and play its part by supporting employability services and fixing the devastating chaos in our NHS.
“On John Swinney’s watch over 100,000 Scots have been stuck on an NHS waiting list for over a year and one in 10 young Scots are out of work due to long term illness – this cannot continue.”
