Anas Sarwar backs Keir Starmer over welfare reform

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has backed the prime minister’s approach to welfare reforms.

The UK government is expected to announce cuts to welfare spending in the coming weeks, with Sir Keir Starmer describing the current system as “unsustainable, indefensible and unfair”.

Sarwar said action was needed to get people back into work and put public finances on a “sustainable footing”.

Scotland’s Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville described reported welfare cuts as “austerity turbocharged”.

The mooted changes have also been criticised by some Labour politicians.

The UK government is expected to announce restrictions on eligibility for the Personal Independent Payment (PIP) – which provides help with extra living costs to those with a long-term physical or mental health condition – and cuts to incapacity benefits for people unable to work and receiving Universal Credit.

Addressing Labour MPs, the prime minister said the welfare system was “the worst of all worlds”, discouraging people from working while producing a “spiralling bill”.

Sarwar said Sir Keir was taking the “right approach”.

He told BBC Scotland News: “It’s clear that we have to get more people into work and we have to make sure that we have our public finances on a sustainable footing.”

The Scottish Labour leader said he would not be drawn on the “speculation” about specific welfare cuts, but added that he supported the “broader principle” that people should be encouraged into work to tackle a “ballooning” welfare bill.

He said ministers had to “get to the root causes of what’s holding so many people back from getting the opportunities they deserve”.

Sarwar said in Scotland that meant tackling NHS waiting lists, the housing emergency and drug and alcohol problems.

And he accused the Scottish government of not “playing its part” to address such issues.

He also defended the prime minister’s decision to cut the UK’s foreign aid budget to fund an increase in military spending.

Five Scottish Labour MPs signed a letter backing welfare reform, calling it “a truly progressive endeavour”.

But Brian Leishman, Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, has vowed to oppose “appalling” welfare cuts.

Posting on X, he said such a move would “consign the most vulnerable people in the country into forever poverty”.

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, Somerville described the reported plans as “turbo-charged austerity on the backs of some of our most vulnerable constituents”.

She added: “The Scottish government will never accept this and we are calling urgently on the UK government to scrap these plans.”

Incapacity benefits are distributed by the UK government across Britain, meaning Treasury cuts would directly impact Scottish claimants.

But north of the border PIP is being replaced by the Adult Disability Payment (ADP) – a devolved benefit created and administered by the Scottish government.

The money Holyrood receives to administer such benefits is linked to Treasury payouts for equivalent benefits in other parts of the UK.

So a cut to spending on PIP by the UK government would leave Holyrood ministers short.

If they want to provide more generous devolved benefits than the Westminster equivalent, they have to find the cash from elsewhere in their budget.

Ahead of reports about UK government welfare cuts, the budget gap between what Scotland has committed to social security and what it receives from the UK government was already forecast to rise to £1.3bn in the coming financial year.

Overall Scottish government spending on social security is expected to rise to almost £7bn in 2025-26.

That is forecast to increase to about £9bn by 2029-30.