Swinney: Sarwar’s words count for nothing amid ‘return to austerity’ with cuts

John Swinney has said Anas Sarwar’s words “count for absolutely nothing” as he accused the UK Government of a return to austerity – something the Scottish Labour leader had promised would not happen.

Speaking to reporters in Grangemouth, the First Minister said Sir Keir Starmer’s Government wants to enact cuts that would punish “the most vulnerable in our society”.

UK Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced on Tuesday £5 billion worth of proposed welfare cuts, largely stemming from a big reduction in support for those off work due to disability and ill health.

During the general election campaign last year, Mr Sarwar had told voters: “Read my lips: no austerity under Labour.”

The SNP claims the welfare budget cuts, among other measures, amount to austerity – something that has been rejected by Mr Sarwar but echoed by a senior member of his team at Holyrood.

Carol Mochan, Scottish Labour’s public health spokeswoman, contradicted her boss in a social media post on the welfare cuts by saying: “Austerity has never been a sustainable path to growth. We cannot balance the books on the backs of people who require benefits just to have a passable standard of living.”

Mr Swinney said he “could not fathom what the Labour Government thinks it is doing”.

He added: “I think it’s made a number of huge mistakes already. The winter fuel cut was a disastrous mistake for the Labour Government to make.

“That proposal was offered to the Tories on countless occasions and they never took it.

“The Labour Party has taken that cut and they’ve now taken cuts to disability benefits, which even the Tories didn’t do.”

Mr Findlay said his former party was choosing to “punish and stigmatise the weak, poor and the vulnerable”.

Mr Swinney said the move to clamp down on welfare claimants shows Mr Sarwar had broken his election pledge.

“We now know that Anas Sarwar’s words count for absolutely nothing,” he said. “This is the return to austerity that I told everybody would happen unless some of the hard realities of the public finances were addressed.

Speaking to the PA news agency earlier during his visit to Celtic Renewables, the First Minister said the UK Government’s benefit cuts would be “very damaging to people facing disabilities in our society”.

Asked if he can promise Scots with disabilities he will not cut their Scottish benefits as a result of the decisions taken at Westminster, he said: “I don’t agree with these proposals and I think the UK Government should reconsider them.

“Now, what they decide to do with these proposals is a matter for the UK Government.”

Pressed again on whether cuts could be announced on welfare controlled by the Scottish Government, Mr Swinney said it is not yet “certain” what Ms Kendall’s cuts will mean for Holyrood’s budget.

“What I do know is that if there’s a £5 billion cut to welfare expenditure in the UK by a Labour Government, that’s picking up on austerity where the Tories left off that’s likely to have a damaging effect on the Scottish Government’s budget.

“We’ll consider all those issues in due course.”

He said his Government is “serious about protecting people who face difficulty in our society who have been abandoned by a Labour Government”.

He added: “I won’t stand by and abandon people who face difficulty in our society. I’m on the side of people that face difficulties and I’ll take tough decisions to protect them.”

Mr Sarwar has backed the PM, saying welfare reform is needed to ensure the system – which is ballooning in cost – is “fair”.

Sir Keir has said there is a moral case to overhaul the system to get more people back into work following a huge rise in those claiming incapacity benefits since Covid, including many young people unemployed due to mental ill health.

Despite the cuts, the overall welfare budget is still expected to rise.

Dame Jackie Baillie, deputy leader of Scottish Labour, said: “This is desperate fearmongering from dishonest John.

“The Labour Government decisively ended Tory austerity and delivered a record budget for Scotland, boosting funding by £5.2 billion – more money for our NHS, our schools and our devolved social security system.

“The SNP voted against Labour’s record budget settlement in the House of Commons and put forward plans that would have cut funding for Scotland by over £600 million.

“It’s right that we remove the barriers that prevent people from being able to work, but the SNP must step up and play its part by supporting employability services and fixing the devastating chaos in our NHS.

“On John Swinney’s watch over 100,000 Scots have been stuck on an NHS waiting list for over a year and one in 10 young Scots are out of work due to long-term illness – this cannot continue.”