KEIR Starmer has been told to “listen to voters” and block his Chancellor’s plans to impose deep cuts in this year’s Budget.
Rachel Reeves is looking to raise up to £40 billion through tax hikes and spending in her 2024 autumn Budget at the end of the month.
But she has faced backlash from within her own party with some ministers unhappy at being asked to reduce spending by as much as 20%.
Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, has written to the Prime Minister urging him to intervene and stop the cuts.
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He said, in a letter seen by the PA news agency, that Starmer must “listen to voters and your own Cabinet colleagues: intervene now, overrule the Chancellor and stop the cuts, or people in Scotland will never forgive the Labour Party”.
Claiming the Chancellor’s Budget was “descending into total chaos”, he urged the Prime Minister to “immediately intervene and block the Chancellor’s plans for devastating austerity cuts”.
He said: “It is clear from the growing rebellion in the UK Cabinet that even your own Labour ministers are deeply concerned about the huge scale, and damaging nature, of the austerity cuts that your government is planning to impose on public services and millions of families across the UK.
“At the election, you promised voters that the Labour Party would end austerity cuts – but instead you are increasing them to a level not seen since the worst cuts of George Osborne.”
Flynn said that families across the UK would pay a “devastating price” if the Chancellor “takes an axe” to public services through cuts.
He reiterated his attack on Starmer for taking away the Winter Fuel Payment to all but the poorest pensioners.
The Scottish Government later followed suit, saying it had to axe the benefit after Westminster cut its budget by up to £160 million.
“No-one voted for this,” Flynn said, “and the Labour Government does not have a mandate to impose these damaging cuts, which you explicitly promised voters you would not make.
“It’s clear from the polls that the public are rapidly losing faith in your government as a result of the Chancellor’s decision to impose austerity cuts and now, it seems, even your own Cabinet ministers are losing faith in the Chancellor, too.
“I urge you to listen to voters and your own Cabinet colleagues – intervene now, overrule the Chancellor and stop the cuts, or people in Scotland will never forgive the Labour Party."
The letter comes after the UK Government has already sent off its finalised Budget plans to the fiscal watchdog.
The overall total Whitehall budgets – known collectively as the “spending envelope” – have now been submitted to the Office for Budget Responsibility, No 10 said.
Starmer's spokesperson said there will have to be “tough decisions” taken in the Budget and that “not every department will be able to do everything they want to”.
He added that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have already agreed on the “major measures”, including the spending limit for each department.
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