Scottish Labour will not oppose the Scottish Government's Budget when it is announced on Tuesday, with leader Anas Sarwar announcing his MSPs will abstain in the vote. The decision ensures the Budget will pass and signals Labour's strategic focus on the upcoming May election rather than current parliamentary negotiations.
Sarwar defended the move during a visit to a credit union in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, citing his party's weak negotiating position. «I'm just living in the real world. We are not in a strong negotiating position,» he told journalists. «The Greens and the SNP are going to do a deal on the Budget, the Budget is going to pass and there's a possibility the Lib Dems could do a deal, too.»
The Labour leader emphasized that attempting to deny parliamentary arithmetic would be unrealistic. «Me trying to pretend that the parliamentary arithmetic currently doesn't favour the SNP and instead favours the Labour Party, does not live in the real world,» Sarwar said. He added that changing outcomes requires changing the government itself.
Sarwar delivered sharp criticism of what the upcoming Budget will fail to deliver. «It's not going to give us anywhere near the kind of new direction we need in our country,» he told journalists. The Budget will not include a plan to reform the NHS, a renegotiation of the GP contract to end the 8am rush, or realignment of investment for apprenticeships, colleges, and universities, according to Sarwar. «It's not going to deliver reform of our justice system so police officers are out of courtrooms not giving evidence, or stuck in A&E because of a lack of capacity in the NHS and instead on the front line supporting communities,» he said.
Election Focus
The party's attention has turned fully to May's election, despite recent polls suggesting Labour could slip to third place behind Reform. However, Labour points to its victory in last year's Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, won by MSP Davy Russell, as evidence that polls can be defied.
If Labour wins in May, Sarwar said the party would «keep every option on the table,» including «re-prioritisation» of current government plans or even a full emergency budget. When asked about his election confidence, he declared: «I have every confidence this is an election we can win and this is an election we will win. We have already shown in the first week since the Parliament has returned that we are the hungriest, we are the most energetic, we have the most ideas and we're the ones that are most committed to go out there and throw absolutely everything at this election campaign, because this is an opportunity Scotland can't afford to miss.»
Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
