ANAS Sarwar has been told to “find a backbone” after yet another clip of the Scottish Labour leader making a “broken promise” about policy was unearthed.
In a TV debate during the General Election campaign, Sarwar turned to face First Minister John Swinney and said: “We have already committed more money to our public services, I’ve already set out how we would do more capital investment, we would borrow to do capital investment.”
But it has now emerged ministers have been asked to make billions of pounds in cuts to infrastructure projects.
Despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledging to invest more to grow the economy, members of the Cabinet have been asked to model cuts to their investment plans of up to 10% of their annual capital spending as part of this month’s spending review, government sources told The Guardian.
The clip was unearthed on Twitter/X by pro-independence account MSM Monitor.
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Scottish Labour have been approached by The National for comment but have so far not offered any response.
It comes after Sarwar faced severe criticism for repeated pledges of “no austerity”, only for Starmer to announce a “painful” Budget was on its way at the end of this month amid an apparent £22 billion in the public finances.
Rachel Reeves is planning to cut annual capital spending by 10%.
— MSM Monitor (@msm_monitor) October 1, 2024
During the general election campaign Anas Sarwar said Labour would borrow in order to pay for more capital spending. Looks like another Sarwar pledge is about to bite the dust. pic.twitter.com/mcZbI3mZFO
SNP MSP David Torrance (below) told The National this is becoming a concerning “pattern of behaviour”.
He said: "Anas Sarwar should do two things immediately – first he should apologise to the people of Scotland for the repeated promises he made during the election campaign which are now being broken one by one.
"Secondly, he should urgently be lobbying his bosses in Westminster to step up investment in vital infrastructure like he promised. This would ensure that in Scotland we could carry out essential projects to improve the road network, hospitals and energy infrastructure.
"This is becoming a pattern of behaviour from austerity Anas – it is time he found a backbone and stood up to Keir Starmer."
Economists have warned that planned cuts to capital spending could end up damaging the economy and the UK’s public infrastructure.
Reeves will announce her first Budget as Chancellor on October 30.
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