IT'S budget day, and completely overshadowed by today's set piece Commons event was yet another Labour betrayal yesterday.

On Tuesday Labour MPs voted against an amendment to the Great British Energy Bill which would have ensured that the newly established publicly owned company had a legal obligation to ensure that lower energy prices are delivered.

The promise of lower energy bills was made repeatedly by the Labour Party during this summer's Westminster general election campaign and was supposed to be the very raison d'être for the establishment of the new GB Energy company. During the general election, Keir Starmer had pledged to reduce household energy bills by up to £300 by creating GB Energy.

The amendment to the bill was tabled by the Tories and was designed to make it a strategic priority for GB Energy to reduce household energy bills by £300 by 2030. You might have thought that this was not an unreasonable ask.

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The amendment would have given the new company six years to reduce energy bills by £300, and that figure would be a "strategic priority" not a legally binding target set in stone. That wording would give Starmer plenty of wriggle room, this is after all a man who argued that he did not say that Israel had the right to cut off food and water from the population of Gaza when we all heard him say just that.

So, he'd have no problems arguing that GB Energy's "strategic priority" was not in fact a cast-iron commitment should the new company fail in its supposedly intended goal of reducing energy bills by £300.

However, MPs voted 361 to 124, a majority of 237, to reject the amendment. Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho commented: “These weren’t one-off promises, it was the party line as dictated by the Secretary of State. These promises are still up in writing.

“In fact, the Labour Party website still says that their energy plans would cut bills by £300 on average but oddly, ministers now don’t seem so keen on that pledge.”

Following the vote, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn (below) highlighted a Tweet published by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in June this year in which she wrote: “Great British Energy, a publicly owned energy company, will cut energy bills by up to £300.

(Image: Lucy North)

“Family finances will be my priority.”

He then commented: commented: “Labour voted against giving GB Energy the remit to reduce energy bills by £300. Just FYI.”

Incidentally, since Elon Musk took over Twitter and renamed it X, it's now unclear what we are supposed to call tweets. I suggest excrements, since judging by Reeves' tweet about GB Energy reducing energy bills by £300, they are clearly meant to be flushed away and forgotten about as soon as possible after they are produced.

Before the budget announcement came PMQs, the last which Rishi Sunak will attend as Leader of the Opposition. It was all very chummy and matey. Isn't it lovely when you can wreak havoc on the country and then bugger off into a cosy life on the back benches with a hearty pat on the back.

In a sign of what we are in for from Starmer's bunch of Scottish lickspittles, and what we'd be in for if Scotland is foolish enough to vote Labour at the next Scottish Parliament elections, Katherine Murray, the Labour MP for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch asked for a change to the fundamental operation to the way in which the devolution settlement operates - either that or she's clueless about how devolution is supposed to work. To be fair to her, either one of these possibilities is equally plausible.

In her question before PMQs, Murray said: “Cumbernauld in my constituency was promised an elective and diagnostic treatment centre by the Scottish Government in 2021. This has continued to be delayed and is now alleged to be mothballed.

“What assurances can the Prime Minister give me that any Barnett consequentials from today's Budget are used to benefit my constituents and not be held on to by the Scottish Government?"

SNP MP Pete Wishart commented: “Scottish Labour MPs continuing the tradition started by Scottish Tory MPs in asking questions about the Scottish Government that have absolutely nothing to do with UK Government Ministers. It just makes them look like they're in the wrong Parliament and also, slightly daft...”

(Image: PA)

This kind of grandstanding by Labour MPs takes place without the Scottish Government having any right of reply. However, perhaps when complaining about NHS Scotland, Murray could refer to the reply given by her own government's Health Secretary Wes Streeting when questioned about problems within the Labour controlled NHS in Wales, which is performing much more poorly than NHS Scotland. "All roads lead back to Westminster," he said.

Basic logic dictates that if the NHS is in crisis across the entire UK, then not all problems within NHS Scotland can be laid at the door of the Scottish Government, which does not have the full range of tax-raising and borrowing powers available to the Westminster government and which is largely dependent on a fixed budget set by Westminster which has not kept pace with inflation.

But then basic logic is not something you typically expect from a Labour MP in Scotland. These are after all, people who insist that they are opposed to nationalism even as their party wraps itself in the British flag, and espouses the Conservatives' English nationalist hard line on immigration and Brexit.

Today's budget is still being announced at the time of writing, the statement from the Chancellor (below) is expected to deliver tax rises, departmental cuts, and a change to fiscal rules to allow increased borrowing.

(Image: PA)

Despite the forecast cuts to departmental spending, Anas Sarwar will still insist that there will be no austerity under Labour, and he will not be challenged on this by most of the media in Scotland.

As with previous budgets under Tory chancellors, the true impact only becomes apparent in the days following the announcement in the Commons, often it was very different from commentary at the time of the announcement, we shall see over the coming days whether this budget unravels in the same way.

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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