Westminster Won’t Listen
by It’s time for Andy Burnham to deliver on Labour’s broken energy promises
Andy Burnham has announced that he will hit the road on what Downing Street is calling a “listening tour” to address the cost of living.
But if Labour’s track record since taking keys to Downing Street in 2024 is anything to go by, this tour is shaping up to be less like a genuine fact-finding mission and more like a mime artist performing at an AC/DC concert – all dramatic hand gestures, absolutely zero sound logic, and completely useless to anyone trying to hear a real solution.
If Andy Burnham is actually serious about listening to the public, the SNP has a simple message: start by living up to the promises Labour made during the 2024 election – and then rapidly tossed into the nearest wheelie bin the moment they crossed the threshold of Number 10.
The biggest, glaring broken promise hanging over Labour’s head is their pledge to cut household energy bills by £300. Instead of heading in the direction of delivering that relief, energy bills this October are set to soar by nearly £600 higher than what was promised.
So far, Burnham’s big play on the cost of living has been removing VAT from energy bills starting in October. The result? A jaw-dropping saving of around £3 a month.
Offering Scottish households three quid off a six-hundred-pound surge is like handing someone a wet paper napkin to put out a forest fire. It is a drop in the ocean when families are facing a raging tsunami of winter heating costs.
As summer heatwaves give way to autumn chills, the cold reality for millions across Scotland is setting in. Concerns about blistering weather are fast turning into dread over blistering gas and electricity bills.
SNP Westminster Leader Dave Doogan MP pulled no punches on Labour’s slick PR exercise:
“If Andy Burnham is actually serious about listening, he should start by living up to all the promises the Labour Party made to the public during the last election – and then rapidly broke – when they got into Downing Street.
“The biggest broken promise of all from the Labour Party was to cut energy bills by £300 – instead they are set to go up nearly £600.
“People in Scotland don’t want to hear any more empty promises about ‘hope in their hearts’ – they want money in their pockets. A listening tour for TikTok content won’t pay the bills, putting proper money in people’s pockets will.”
Labour’s strategy of treating hard-pressed families to soothing slogans is like offering a starving person a shiny picture of a steak dinner. You can’t pay your energy provider in empty vibes, and a viral TikTok clip won’t keep the radiators warm in December.
The economic backdrop is growing stormier by the day.
New research from the Resolution Foundation warns that the risk of another energy price spike remains dangerously real, fueled by ongoing instability in the Middle East pushing global oil prices up once again.
Meanwhile, the Bank of England warned earlier this month that inflation pressures are lingering, energy bills are set to hit even harder, and the public finances of Brexit Britain remain fundamentally broken.
Yet Andy Burnham, who loves to boast about tackling the “big issues,” seems to have put on a pair of heavy-duty earmuffs to block out these noises.
Ignoring the autumn cost-of-living crunch is like sitting in a living room while the smoke alarm screams at top volume and insisting you’re enjoying the its tune.
Scotland’s energy resources power vast swathes of these islands, yet Scottish families are being forced to choose between heating and eating while Westminster politicians tour the country filming content for their social feeds.
The first true test of Burnham’s hearing will be whether he puts right Keir Starmer’s broken promise on energy bills.
The SNP will continue to hold Labour’s feet to the fire – because people in Scotland deserve real financial protection, not another Whitehall photo-opportunity with empty bonhomie.