A strong team of SNP MPs will fight tooth and nail against Labour cuts

by Kate Forbes
Posted on
5 months ago
3 min read

I can’t remember a time when the UK has felt more divided than it does now.

Indeed, few of us can. Whether it’s the scars left by a reckless Brexit or the increasing polarisation of our debate, it feels that only fundamental change is the antidote to this national malaise.

Successive Westminster governments have left behind a woeful legacy; a catalogue of failures that has shown Scotland that the decisions that affect us would be better made here.

Those Westminster governments have neglected to properly invest in public services and infrastructure, and pursued policies that have deterred investment and hampered growth. Their legacy has been to let the UK stagnate and stumble down international league tables.

And we have no reason to believe Labour can provide the fundamental change we need. People across these isles demand a major reset to the status quo – not a hollow word on a placard.

It’s clear that Labour’s sums don’t add up and their priorities are all wrong.

The IFS estimates it would cost £3.4 billion to scrap the two child cap, a Tory welfare measure that keeps thousands of children in poverty. This is a drop in the ocean for any Westminster government but Sir Keir has doubled down on his vow to keep it, along with the rape clause, the bedroom tax, and a whole litany of Tory policies that have made this country worse, not better.

It won’t just be those already in poverty who will feel the cold shoulder of a floundering Labour government. There is an £18 billion black hole in the finances. If Labour won’t consider the long overdue reform of Westminster’s creaking tax system, that only leaves austerity.

They might call it something else of course, but to countless families across Scotland it’ll feel just the same.

And austerity won’t be reserved to England – the decisions taken by Westminster are felt here too, affecting the money we have to spend on public services.

I know how hard it is already to deliver a Scottish budget – I’ve delivered my fair share. But with a renewed austerity programme, it’ll be near impossible, like trying to land a Boeing 747 on a post-it-note!

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told Times Radio that Labour might discover public finances to be “even worse” than anticipated – a claim debunked by Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies who confirmed Labour’s denials ‘won’t wash’.

This follows the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies highlighting the fiscal constraints both Labour and the Tories have already signed up to which, at a minimum, would mean an additional £18 billion in public cuts after already having been subjected to over a decade of Westminster austerity.

These comments from Nick Thomas-Symonds indicate that the Labour Party are planning even deeper cuts than the £18 billion they have already committed to.

To put it simply, Labour is gearing up for public service cuts. The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, has already spoken about his desire to open the health service to privatisation and Labour in Scotland has floated the idea of scrapping free tuition.

We can plainly see that Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is one that will keep children in poverty, force even deeper cuts on to our precious NHS and slash at key drivers of social mobility.

Westminster won’t change. It never does.

After 14 years of austerity the last thing Scotland needs are more public service cuts but that is exactly what the Labour Party is proposing.

Westminster politicians will put on the same old show that we’ve seen a hundred times before. The script always reads the same; these are tough times, we must make hard decisions, there is no other way.

Well the SNP has shown that to be nonsense. We’ve shown there is another way. Investing in infrastructure to drive growth, establishing a fairer tax system to fund our public services and ensuring that Scotland is leading from the front to secure the Just Transition.

Only the SNP will offer a future where decisions are made in Scotland, for Scotland. And only a strong team of SNP MPs will stand up for our communities and put Scotland’s interests first.

For an end to austerity, Brexit, and the cost-of-living crisis, vote SNP on July 4th.