The SNP have said it is becoming clearer every day that the ‘change’ people on these islands desire can’t be delivered by a cosy Westminster consensus which continues to inflict a hard Brexit, austerity cuts and a prolonged cost of living crisis.
The SNP’s Stephen Gethins MP made the remarks at the annual Plaid Cymru conference, which falls on the eve of the UK Labour Government’s 100th day in office.
During those first 100 days – despite promising voters ‘change’ – the UK Labour Government has doubled down on Tory austerity with the cut to pensioners’ winter fuel payments, has failed to address the economic damage being done by a Tory hard Brexit and has been engulfed by sleaze scandals.
Mr Gethins said that the damaging Westminster consensus between the Tories and the Labour Party on a hard Brexit and austerity economics has led to a political equation where ‘it does not appear to matter how hard right the Tories become, Labour follow’.
In his speech, Stephen Gethins MP said:
“The Conservative / Labour consensus that we witness every day at Westminster, damages Wales and Scotland, as its policies damage other parts of the UK.
“It does not appear to matter how hard right the Tories become, Labour follow.
“For 14 years we have seen the damage Tory austerity is doing to our public services.
“Yet the Labour party continues to follow Tory spending plans when we know the damage that has done and will continue to do.
“The Chancellor tells us just how important cutting Winter Fuel Allowance is to their plans.
“Just ahead of winter, cutting the winter fuel allowance, to pensioners during a cost-of-living crisis at a time when energy prices have been increasing.”
Mr Gethins went on to say that the path back to a politics of hope and optimism will only be found back in the European Union.
“Politics should be about opportunity and hope for the future.
“It should be about building links and a normalisation of our relationships with countries so similar to Wales and Scotland across Europe.
“What we seek in challenging the damaging consensus at Westminster is not that we seek to be different, but rather the opposite.
“That the exceptionalism of Westminster that has led to austerity, contributed to the cost-of-living crisis and taken away opportunities from our young people be replaced with one of normality.
“The path away from the damage of Westminster – the path back to normality – is the path that leads us back into the European Union.”
