The closer we get to the UK budget next week, the more chaos that seems to consume the Labour Government in London.
And that chaos is playing out in public. Because if you happened to pick up a newspaper in the past few days or caught an evening news bulletin, you’ll have watched report after report about Labour cabinet ministers briefing against their own Chancellor. Early days for infighting you might think, but it’s been there for all to see.
There is one simple reason for that chaos. At long last some of the Labour Cabinet, including the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, have woken up to the damage that the Chancellor’s austerity agenda will cause our communities.
Reports say that Rachel Reeves has demanded that departments produce a devastating plan for 20 per cent cuts, and so her cabinet colleagues were faced with a choice. Copy and paste Tory cuts and impose a new era of Labour austerity or choose to rebel. Credit where it is due – at least three or four of the Cabinet have had the backbone to put up a fight – we’ll wait and see if they follow through.
You might well ask yourself though, where have the big shots in Scottish Labour been whilst this rebellion against austerity has been gathering momentum. It’s a very fair question. After all, during the general election it was Ian Murray who said that anyone warning about austerity was talking ‘mince’. And how can we forget Anas Sarwar preaching to all of us ‘Read my lips – no austerity under Labour’.
But for all their big talk back then, they’re now keeping a serene but shameful silence. When rebellion raised its head, they went into hiding. People won’t forget that when it came to the crunch in the fight against austerity – they didn’t lift a finger and didn’t say a word.
No amount of silence or hiding though will take away their responsibility for the economic brutality that the UK budget looks set to bring. From what we hear, the Labour Chancellor is thinking about hammering businesses with national insurance increases, hiking fuel duty which will hit pretty much everyone who owns a car, slashing the budgets for sickness and disability benefits and, of course, she is still cutting the winter fuel payment for pensioners.
This is all being done in the name of filling a black hole in the finances that they somehow forgot to mention when they were running around during the summer looking for your vote.
All the while the biggest black hole of all – the financial black hole that is Brexit – is ignored. Only this week my colleague Stephen Gethins got the UK Treasury to admit that they have paid £24 billion to leave the EU, with billions more still owed.
So, when Labour tell you they had no choice in this Budget – don’t believe them. They could choose to stop the madness of Brexit and stop bleeding billions out of our economy. They are choosing not to.
With that budget just 10 days away – to quote Keir Starmer – it does seem that ‘things can only get worse’. The Labour Party will likely pay a heavy political price for promising ‘change’ but delivering austerity – but for Scotland the consequences for our economy and society will be deeply damaging.
The only hope now is a cabinet rebellion big enough that it overrules Reeves and reverses austerity. For that to happen more voices and more cabinet members need to join it. Time for Ian Murray and Anas Sarwar to come out of hiding.
Scottish Visa
In the latest round of Labour Party let downs, this week we had the cross-party backed proposals for a Scottish visa slapped down by the Home Secretary.
Now it would be easy for me to point out yet another bold Scottish Labour promise having been embarrassingly crushed within the first few months of Sir Keir Starmer coming to power, but I’ll refrain.
We all agree we have crippling staff shortages in our care sector and in key Scottish industries because of Brexit and our declining population.
Scottish Labour big wigs joined our calls for the Scottish Government’s pragmatic visa plans to be implemented, with Labour’s own Jackie Baillie giving the nod during the General Election campaign.
Yet, somehow, the Labour Home Secretary deems a unique Scottish system unworthy of consideration. That conclusion is derived from a place of sheer denial.
Denial that Brexit is damaging Scotland’s economy. Denial of Scottish democracy and denial of the possibility that immigration can be a good thing.
We have an opportunity to work beyond political lines and deliver for Scotland’s health sector and businesses. An opportunity to put Scotland’s interests first.
In Westminster, we will move a Scottish Visa Bill and we invite the Labour Party to join us.
Sir Chris Hoy
If you’re having a chat about great Scottish sportsmen, you’re almost guaranteed that Sir Chris Hoy will get a mention. A legendary force in cycling, he inspired countless numbers of people with his triumphs on the biggest stage of all.
The news of his cancer diagnosis came as a shock to many, and that shock will have only intensified as he revealed at the weekend that it is terminal. His message to the public carried his hallmark class and good grace, offering a calm and steady reassurance that will have hit home with so many families across the land.
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