In reaction to her speech at the Labour Party conference, the SNP has said the Chancellor’s promise of ‘no austerity’ has fallen apart in a matter of hours.
In multiple broadcast interviews this morning, Rachel Reeves promised to end austerity but just hours later refused to reverse her cuts to the winter fuel allowance which the SNP warned was the ‘the very definition of an austerity cut’.
A trade union motion to reverse the cuts to pensioners was blocked at the Labour Party conference, with Unite boss Sharon Graham saying that the Labour leadership was trying to ‘silence the voice of pensioners’.
Last Wednesday, a poll by Survation found a majority of Scots (56%) do not think the Labour government is “acting in the best interests of Scotland” – while just 15% do.
The poll also found a majority (51%) of Scots oppose Labour’s cuts to winter fuel payments, and almost half of Labour voters in Scotland (44%) think Keir Starmer’s government has “failed to meet expectations”.
SNP Westminster economy spokesperson Dave Doogan MP said:
“The Chancellor’s promise to end austerity cuts didn’t last the morning – she failed the first test of that pledge by failing to reverse her political choice to remove energy payments from pensioners.
“Cutting the winter fuel payment for 860,000 Scottish pensioners is the very definition of an austerity cut.
“Rachel Reeves has a very simple question to answer – if a UK Labour government picking the pockets of pensioners isn’t austerity – what is?
“It is clearer by the day that Labour’s promises aren’t worth the election leaflets they were written on.
“The truth is that Labour promised ‘change’ to win votes – and with their poll numbers plummeting, they are prepared to say anything to get through the next set of awkward interviews.
“The Chancellor should learn the lessons of the past 14 years and not repeat the same damaging mistakes as the Tories and George Osborne.
“The fact is you can’t cut your way to prosperity or better public services – and you can’t eradicate poverty by making people poorer.
“Aside from re-joining the EU single market, the single best way to build a stronger economy is to invest in growth by delivering the capital funding needed for green energy, affordable homes, transport, schools and hospitals.
“People in Scotland were promised change.
“Instead, we got Sir Keir ‘King of Freebies’ Starmer and Rachel ‘Queen of Austerity’ Reeves living the high life while imposing cuts on the rest of us.
“After fourteen long years of the Tories, people want to see an end to cuts – not more misery imposed by an out of touch Labour government.”
