ANAS Sarwar has been accused of “placating his Westminster bosses” with his speech at the Labour Party conference.
The Scottish Labour leader took to the stage in Liverpool on Monday to praise the party’s General Election victory – which he said was only “half the job”.
Sarwar said that the 2026 Holyrood elections were the party’s chance to “finish the job by electing a Scottish Labour government”.
And he was adamant that despite the cuts planned in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s upcoming Budget, there would be “no return to austerity” under Labour.
Reeves (above) had earlier in the day used her speech, which was interrupted by a heckler criticising Labour’s continuation of arms sales to Israel, to attack the Tories’ adherence to a “discredited trickle-down and trickle-out dogma”.
But she also defended the cuts she has already made, including the decision to axe the universal Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners and pledged the Budget would be based on a foundational aim of “economic and fiscal stability”.
Sarwar’s speech, which took aim both at the Tories and the SNP, was criticised as a “textbook example of putting party before people”.
SNP MSP Kevin Stewart (below) said: “Instead of standing up for Scotland against policies like the two-child cap, and Labour's cut to the Winter Fuel Payment, he spent 10 minutes placating his Westminster bosses with empty words and meaningless slogans.
“Anas Sarwar is content to defend the indefensible, whether that be the two-child cap that is pushing 87,000 children into poverty or the withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Payment from 860,000 Scottish pensioners.”
Stewart also demanded Sarwar and Scottish Secretary Ian Murray come clean on Labour’s previous suggestions that the Scotland Office would be given a £150 million war chest to combat poverty north of the Border.
Murray fumed in a TV interview over the weekend when he was confronted with past reports about the plans, which appear to have been overstated.
The Sunday Mail in August reported that the Scotland Office may be converted into a “spending department” with a remit to repurpose “Levelling Up” funds to bypass Holyrood and invest directly in anti-poverty schemes in Scotland.
Murray (above) accused the journalist who wrote the story of having “made up” the figure, something he later walked back, admitting they had been based on the amount of “Levelling Up” cash previously allocated to Scotland.
Stewart said: “Ian Murray and Anas Sarwar should also be explaining where the £150m poverty fund they promised has gone.
“The SNP is the only party presenting a positive, hopeful vision of a more prosperous Scotland, which we can only achieve with independence.”
