The SNP Government would “look at” making the Winter Fuel Payment universal again if its funding goes up in the Budget, Stephen Flynn has said.
The SNP Westminster leader urged the Labour Chancellor to end the “doom and gloom” and bring “positivity” in her statement today.
Flynn also refused to rule out staging some kind of interruption during the event, as former SNP leader Alex Salmond did in 1988.
Rachel Reeves will become the first woman to give the Budget when she stands up in the House of Commons this afternoon.
Labour MPs have been told ahead of the statement that the Budget will be positive for Scotland.
When asked if the SNP Government would reinstate the benefit if its funding increases in the Budget, Flynn said: “I’m not entirely sure my dreams will come true, I think the chancellor might disappoint me. If the UK Government provides the funding to mitigate the damage they have caused to the Winter Fuel Allowance, then the Scottish Government would, of course, look at that because the finding would be there.
“This is within the gift of Westminster. This should never have happened in the first place. But we should be looking beyond that, to be looking at energy bills, holding Labour’s feet to the fire on the fact that they said energy bills were going to come down. [They said] there was going to be £300 off energy bills. that’s not happened, they’ve gone up 10 per cent.”
Flynn said he wanted Reeves to be positive and announce investment for the country: “What we need to see firstly is the Chancellor walking back from austerity. Since she came in the door and since Keir Starmer’s been in No10, it’s been doom and gloom. they’ve been telling everyone how bad things are going to be.
“What we need to see is some positivity. We need to see some investment, investment in capital projects, investment in the public sector itself. And we need to see the Chancellor change tact when it comes to some of the biggest things impacting people at this moment in time in Scotland.”
He said these were the cutting of the Winter Fuel Allowance, the reported increase in employers’ national insurance and the two-child benefit cap.
He continued: “The Labour Party promised us things would change. They promised us things were going to get better. But on each of those measures, it looks like things are going to get worse. She’s got the opportunity to reverse that on Wednesday and we would like to see that.”
Former SNP leader Salmond interrupted Nigel Lawson’s Budget in 1988. When asked if he would repeat a similar stunt, Flynn said: “Alex Salmond was responding to, if I remember correctly, the imposition of the poll tax on the people of Scotland.” Flynn then smiled and said: “So I’ll listen accordingly and closely to what the Chancellor says.”
He added that Reeves being the first woman to give the Budget was “historic” as “for a lot of women, a lot of young girls across society, it’s going to be a big day for them to see something which has never been seen before.”
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