Sarwar fanning the fuel flames
Rachel Reeves put a bomb under Scottish Labour’s Holyrood election hopes when she slashed the Winter Fuel Payment.
The Chancellor took cash from angry pensioners who always vote in elections.
Anas Sarwar’s party tumbled in the opinion polls and were defeated in council by-elections they should have won. If Scottish Labour was a public company, the Reeves announcement sent their share price through the floor.
Sarwar’s promise to axe Reeves’s means-test is an attempt at defusing the time-bomb but is not without risk.
Sarwar’s pitch is essentially “Vote Scottish Labour to reverse UK Labour policy” – a message that could confuse voters.
But his shrewd positioning may be enough to dig himself out of a political hole. Backing a universal WFP for pensioners puts him on the popular side of a damaging controversy for Labour.
It also shows he can flex his muscles as Scottish Labour leader and contradict Starmer and Reeves.
The timing of his declaration is also aimed at upstaging the SNP.
John Swinney is considering bringing back a universal WFP in his December Budget and Sarwar wants to nip ahead of the First Minister.
But there are also wider lessons for Sarwar to learn from the WFP debacle.
Starmer’s government wants to front load the pain while Sarwar needs the early days of the Labour administration to bring positive news. Both leaders are out of sync.
Sarwar’s strategy so far has been to hug the Prime Minister close and reap the benefits in Scotland of a resurgent UK party. But the danger with this approach is Scottish Labour takes a hit when the wider project struggles.
The WFP row shows Sarwar needs to be his own man rather than riding on the coat tails of the UK leader.
Starmer was key to Scottish Labour returning 37 MPs but is becoming an obstacle to the prize Sarwar really wants, to be Scotland’s First Minister.
Fighting for kids
The Daily Record’s Our Kids…Our Future campaign wants all Scots to do their bit to help young people.
As always, our readers are stepping up in droves to make a difference. David McCallum, better known as Ravie Davie, set up the Glasgow School of Wrestling in the heart of Govan to create a beacon of hope for the next generation.
He turned his own life around and now wants to give back to his home area. His gym offers children a chance to get fit, takes them off the streets and lets them learn new skills. More importantly, it gives them a safe haven where they can just be kids.
We can’t praise Davie highly enough – and we’d love to hear from other community heroes doing their bit for our young people.
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