IN a development that surprises absolutely no one, Anas "I'm opposed to the two-child benefit cap" Sarwar, has made himself very scarce since Tuesday evening's disgraceful vote by Labour MPs in the Commons to retain the two-child cap on benefits.
Not one single Labour MP from Scotland voted to abolish the cap, despite the Labour Party in Scotland campaigning during the recent general election on a platform of opposition to the two-child cap.
The only surprising thing here was how quickly the Labour Party was to show its true arrogant colours.
You might have thought they'd have waited a couple of months before so nakedly betraying their promises to the Scottish electorate.
A decade in the Scottish political wilderness has taught the Labour Party nothing at all. Shortly after the Commons vote took place, Labour MP Dierdre Costigan, who represents Ealing Southall, posted a photo to social media showing herself and others celebrating voting down the SNP amendment to abolish the two-child cap on benefits.
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A number of people in the photo were clearly shown to be giving the middle finger. That's the perfect image for Starmer's Labour Party. The moment your vote is in the bag they're giving the middle finger to everyone who believed their claim to be opposed to the two-child cap on benefits and to all the children that they've just condemned to poverty.
University of Glasgow historian Ewan Gibbs noted: “What you have to realise is that for lots of these people, ‘beating the Trots,’ keeping the left down and owning the SNP is what matters.
“The consequences of politics are a distant second to the process and finally getting a shot at crowing about winning in Westminster bars.”
Sources within the Labour Party have denied that the photo was a celebration of Starmer's victory in this week's vote, but rather was taken as the Labour Party celebrated its election victory earlier this month.
It was just an unfortunate coincidence that the photo was only published in the immediate aftermath of the vote to keep the benefit cap in place.
Irrespective of the exact circumstances of that photo, Sarwar (below) has signally failed to explain himself following the shameful refusal of any Labour MPs representing Scottish constituencies to vote against the benefit cap. He has gone to ground as he typically does when he's embarrassed by his Westminster colleagues.
He's certainly not being pressured to do so by BBC Scotland, which did not find time in its coverage of the story to mention the fact that no Labour MP from Scotland voted to scrap the cap.
This is despite the fact that during the recent general election campaign, BBC Scotland gave considerable publicity to the claims of Anas Sarwar that he and the Labour Party in Scotland are opposed to the cap.
However, BBC Scotland did not see fit to tell us how those Labour MPs from Scotland actually voted when the matter was put to the test, it did manage to squeeze in Keir Starmer's attack on the SNP, blaming the Scottish Government for the rise in child poverty in Scotland. It omitted Starmer telling his Scottish MPs that he was proud of them for voting against the amendment.
STV News broadcast these facts.
What BBC Scotland did find time for in last night's episode of the cringeworthy Och Aye the News, aka Reporting Scotland, was a puff piece on the populist right-wing Anglo-British nationalist anti-immigrant Reform UK party, and a segment on how Douglas Ross has more time to spend with his goats, I kid you not (pun intended).
We have grown used to BBC Question Time platforming and enabling the nasty racism and xenophobia of hard-right populist English nationalism.
Now BBC Scotland seems determined to get in on the act as well, no doubt in an effort to squash any perceptions that the Scottish political landscape might be different from the English one, and BBC Scotland seems to be determined to do what it can to ensure that it differs as little as possible.
There is now pressure on the Scottish Government to mitigate what we must now call Labour's rape clause.
The Scottish Government cannot abolish the cap, since it is imposed on benefits which are controlled by Westminster.
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However, the Scottish Government could introduce measures to ameliorate the effects of Starmer's two-child cap on benefits for vulnerable Scottish families.
One way it could potentially do this would be to increase the Scottish Child payment to £40 per week from its current level of £25.
However, there are two certainties should the Scottish Government choose this path, the first follows on from the fiscal reality of a Scottish budget which is constrained by the Block Grant.
Extra funding for the Scottish Child payment could only come from squeezing other parts of Scottish Government spending because unlike Westminster Holyrood has only very limited borrowing and revenue raising powers.
Sarwar and Labour MPs like Gordon McKee, who told constituents contacting him to complain about his refusal to back the immediate scrapping of the two-child cap to write to their SNP MSP, will then complain loudly about 'SNP cuts', and will be platformed by BBC Scotland as they do so.
The second certainty is that the Scottish Government will receive zero credit from most of the Scottish media for taking steps to tackle child poverty that a Labour government in Westminster is unwilling to take.
BBC Scotland has all but ignored the proven success of the Scottish child payment. Likewise it will ignore any positive outcomes achieved by increasing the payment in order to mitigate the effects of Labour's two-child cap on benefits.
What it will not ignore is the funding squeeze on other aspects of Scottish Government funding that will be necessary to boost efforts to tackle child poverty, efforts that the Labour Party is refusing to make because Starmer is more interested in pandering to the right-wing press than in doing the right thing.
This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
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