The SNP has hit out at what it calls “eye-watering levels” of waste at the heart of Westminster, as new research reveals more than £100 billion has been squandered in Labour’s first year in government.
The figure, laid bare in SNP analysis, highlights what the party describes as a financial black hole fuelled by economic mismanagement, costly projects and the ongoing consequences of Brexit.
It comes at a time when households across Scotland continue to grapple with the cost of living crisis and many are now questioning what happened to Labour’s promise of change.
The report sets out a litany of costly decisions, including tax evasion losses, Brexit’s economic fallout, Labour’s legacy of PFI contracts, spiralling nuclear energy costs in England and billions overspent on the HS2 rail project.
All of this, the SNP says, is further proof of a broken system that is failing ordinary people.
Stephen Gethins MP, the SNP’s Scotland Office spokesperson, said the numbers are not just abstract.
“This £100 billion of Westminster waste exposes the raw reality of a Britain that is bust and broken,” he said.
“It’s a combination of economic self-harm and incompetence, Westminster has truly become a Wastemonster.”
He pointed out that the Scottish Government’s entire budget for 2024 to 2025 stood at £59.7 billion.
That means the scale of waste at Westminster is almost double what Scotland operates on, not to invest in public services, but to cover political missteps.
The cost to Scotland is becoming harder to ignore.
Research commissioned by London’s own mayor, Sadiq Khan, estimated that Brexit has already cost the UK economy £140 billion, a price tag that hits every Scot in the pocket by around £2000.
And that’s not all.
Scots will also be paying an extra £300 million on energy bills over the next decade to fund the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk, a project that has nothing to do with Scotland’s energy future.
The SNP calls it a “nuclear tax” imposed by Westminster, with energy minister Ed Miliband accused of making Scots foot the bill.
Gethins said the damage isn’t just financial, it’s political.
“For years, Westminster politicians have lectured Scotland on financial competence,” he said.
“This research gives us £100 billion reasons why they’ve lost the right to do that.”
He warned that another punishing UK budget is looming this autumn, with the Labour Chancellor on course to miss his own fiscal rules by over £41 billion according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
The SNP says the case for the Union is falling apart and the need for independence has never been clearer.
“The consequence of this Westminster waste will be felt again this autumn,” said Gethins.
“And despite all the talk of change, ordinary Scots can now see that the cost of living crisis will not end under Labour.”
He added:
“Scotland deserves the chance to decide its own future beyond the brokenness of Britain, and beyond the waste of Westminster.”
