The SNP has said that Anas Sarwar is at risk of breaking another election promise after reports indicate the UK Labour government is set to cut infrastructure spending.
As reported in the Guardian, Rachel Reeves is asking UK government departments to draw up billions of pounds worth of infrastructure cuts – with departments asked to model cuts of up to 10%.
This comes after Anas Sarwar explicitly said during the General Election campaign during an STV debate that a Labour government would borrow to invest in capital projects.
Anas Sarwar has been down this road before as he promised the people of Scotland “Read my lips.
No austerity under Labour” during the election campaign – only for Rachel Reeves to announce £22 billion of public sector cuts.
Commenting, SNP MSP David Torrance said:
“If these reports are correct then Anas Sarwar should do two things immediately – first he should apologise to the people of Scotland for the repeated promises he made during the election campaign which are now being broken one by one.
“Secondly, he should urgently be lobbying his bosses in Westminster to step up investment in vital infrastructure like he promised.
“This would ensure that in Scotland we could carry out essential projects to improve the road network, hospitals and energy infrastructure.Â
“This is becoming a pattern of behaviour from austerity Anas – it’s time he found a backbone and stood up to Sir Keir Starmer.”