Scottish Labour leader pushes back on winter fuel payment cut

While farmers gather in Westminster today to protest Labour’s Budget, it appears that north of the border Scottish Labour also have doubts about aspects of Rachel Reeves’s fiscal statement. Party leader Anas Sarwar has now vowed he will bring back the universal winter fuel payment for pensioners in a pushback against a cut brought about by, er, his own party in government. How very interesting…

Speaking to the Daily Record, Sarwar today insisted: ‘A Scottish Labour government will reinstate the winter fuel payment for pensioners in Scotland.’ Never one to resist taking a pop at the current SNP administration, however, the Scottish Labour leader went on to add:

The winter fuel payment was supposed to be a devolved benefit this year and there were additional resources available to the Scottish government through the household support fund. That meant we could have taken a different approach in Scotland to support more households this year – instead, the SNP decided to hand the power back to the Department for Work and Pensions.