Scottish Labour leader must apologise for misleading Scotland
The Scottish Greens have called for Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to apologise for misleading the people of Scotland about his party’s spending plans.
During the general election campaign Mr Sarwar called for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped and, in a BBC Scotland debate, explicitly promised that there would be “no austerity under Labour.”
Yet, in the first weeks of the new Labour government, Scottish Labour MPs have voted to keep the cruel cap in place and the new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has announced a series of cuts and implied that there will be far more on the way.
Scottish Green co-leader, Lorna Slater, said: “Scottish Labour promised change and an end to Tory cuts and austerity, but that has fallen apart within weeks of them taking office.
“Anas Sarwar couldn’t have been clearer, I was standing on the stage with him during the BBC debate when he said “read my lips: no austerity under Labour.”
He told us that his MPs would oppose the cruel two-child benefit cap, but not a single one of them voted to scrap it when they had the chance last week.
"Would his party have won so many seats if they had been honest about what they were actually going to do?
“How can we trust Scottish Labour to stand up for our communities when they have been so quick to drop their own policies?
“Anas Sarwar needs to apologise to Scotland and take a stand against Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and the cuts that they are imposing.
Analysis from the University of Greenwich shows that a progressive wealth tax on the richest 1% of households could raise over £70 billion a year for public services like the NHS.
Ms Slater added: “These cuts are a political choice. By introducing a wealth tax and asking the super rich to pay a bit more they could easily remove the two-child cap and undo a lot of the 14 years of pain we endured under the Tories.
“That is how we can move on from the mess created by the Tories and fund our just transition to a fairer, greener economy that works for people and planet.”