Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is acting both against Labour’s interests and Scotland’s interests.
In an interview with Glasgow Southside’s Glad Radio, and speaking to Bylines Scotland’s Martin Roche, Sarwar ruled out Britain re-joining the European Single Market and Customs Union. In a rather contradictory argument that the government was “resetting the UK’s relationship with Europe”, he also ruled out a wealth tax, saying it was the “wrong solution”.
Here lies the fundamental problem with Scottish Labour and why, despite their recent victory in Scotland and in the UK general election of last year, they are unlikely to gain power at Holyrood in the next Scottish elections. The UK Labour leader Keir Starmer is determined to ignore sound solutions and the will of the British people in a ‘my way or the highway’ pursuit of his government agenda.
Instead of standing up to him and ensuring that Scottish Labour and the UK Government’s policies work for Scotland, Sarwar is keen to keep Starmer’s favour, sacrificing Labour’s chances for Bute House and the future of Scotland.
No return to the European Union
The mood across Britain has changed to a fundamentally pro-EU one, which makes Starmer’s attitude and approach towards European Union membership exasperating to say the least. If he’s basing it off the 52% UK-wide vote to leave nine years ago, he needs to re-read the room. But, given that Scotland never voted to leave, Sarwar’s willingness to follow this narrative is even worse.
In the 2016 referendum on EU membership, Scotland overwhelmingly voted to remain a member of the European Union, with 62% of voters in favour of staying in the bloc. But Anas Sarwar wants Scottish Labour to follow the Prime Minister’s direction in ensuring that the nation doesn’t re-enter the European Single Market or Customs Union and, by default, the EU itself.
Why? Who does this benefit? Certainly not the people of Scotland suffering the economic hardships brought on by Brexit. And certainly not his own party, as voters who favoured the European Union will only turn to parties that offer membership: the SNP or the Scottish Greens to name a couple. Is Starmer’s favour really worth losing the Scottish elections for?
No wealth tax
The leader of a party described as a democratic socialist party doesn’t support a wealth tax. Oh, the ideological contradictions in that one. But let’s focus on the implications. Sarwar believes that taxing the wealthy properly and fairly is “the wrong solution” and that Labour’s recent budget will help redistribute wealth.
Is the wealth being redistributed though? With the two-child benefit cap pushing children and families into poverty, with pensioners losing the winter fuel allowance and not being able to afford to heat their homes, and with sick and disabled people now under Starmer’s ‘cutting knife’, it seems that things are only getting worse for those less fortunate.
The Labour government may have difficult choices to make, but so far, they have made them all wrong. Instead of taxing those who can more than afford it, ordinary working people, with barely enough to eat and keep a roof over their heads, are to bear the burden – the very same people who have suffered from years of Conservative austerity pacts. In keeping with Conservative tradition, the wealthiest in society face little hardship or tax increases.
So, what is the strategy here? Push Scotland’s most vulnerable into poverty? Alienate Scottish voters from the Labour Party and stay out of Bute House for the foreseeable future? Hand Scotland’s Westminster seats back to the SNP in 2029 on a silver platter?
Is it ruling out popular policies in favour of his UK-wide counterpart’s austerity driven policy agenda? By doing this, Anas Sarwar has waved goodbye to any chances of becoming First Minister. His lead in the polls, on the back of the general election, has vanished.
But forget parties and elections, the real losers here are the people who will have to bear the burden of Keir Starmer’s policy agenda. Those people are the people of Britain, with those in Scotland seemingly sold out by the Scottish Labour leader. They are being betrayed in favour of alignment with Labour’s UK leader without any benefit in return.
More in Holyrood.
