The SNP hit out after the Scottish Labour leader did an interview in The Scotsman, in which he also suggested that his party are seeing a sharp decline in polling fortunes because of their bosses in London.
The Scottish Labour leader said Scots were looking at politics in the “frame of the UK” – and that people are backing the SNP as a “protest” against unpopular decisions made by the Labour Government at Westminster.
He denied that Labour will deliver austerity, pointing to the increased funding settlements for the Scottish Government after Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget last October.
However, the SNP said Sarwar was living in a “parallel universe” – pointing to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s support for “ruthless” spending cuts.
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Reeves is said to have asked her Cabinet colleagues to review every pound spent in a bid to find savings as the cost of Government borrowing hit 27-year highs and the value of sterling fell earlier this week.
Asked about these planned cuts, Sarwar told The Scotsman: “I think there’s a difference between going through a comprehensive spending review process and looking at what departments within England are having to do in order to reshape their priorities.
“This is very different to the situation we have here in Scotland where £5.2 billion of additional money is coming to the Scottish Government to spend. But they aren’t looking at how they want to spend that differently.
“Instead, they want to keep spending it the same way, wasting the opportunity and having poor outcomes in Scotland. That’s the wrong approach.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar (Image: PA) Sarwar has repeatedly said that the Labour Government in Westminster is having “teething problems” – and pushed he seemed to accept that it was hurting him in Holyrood polls.
“What I think is happening here in Scotland is, undoubtedly, there is a position now where people are thinking about politics in the frame of the UK,” he said.
“I think once we get into the phase of politics where people are thinking about what’s happening here in Scotland, I’m confident we can and will win the election in 2026.”
He went on: “John Swinney will want to pretend that the choice in May 2026 is whether you want to protest against the UK Labour Government or protest against the UK.
“What people across the country will see is 2026 as a choice of who governs in Scotland and what direction we take in Scotland.”
Responding, SNP MSP Rona Mackay said it has “been obvious for some time that Anas Sarwar holds no sway over his bosses at Westminster but it increasingly looks like he is living in a parallel universe from the rest of us”.
“To double-down on his pledge of ‘no austerity under Labour’ in the same week that both the Prime Minister and Chancellor have refused to rule out making severe spending cuts in the forthcoming spending review shows just how far out of touch Sarwar is with his leaders in Westminster,” she went on.
Sarwar was also contradicted by his party bosses earlier this week after he told The House magazine that he was in talks with the Home Office about a bespoke Scottish visa – on the same day the UK Government twice ruled out any such scheme.
Mackay added: “Under John Swinney’s leadership, the SNP has put forward a Budget which puts the people of Scotland’s priorities first – with record investment in the NHS and action to mitigate damaging Westminster policies including the two-child benefit cap and Labour’s decision to axe the universal winter fuel payment for pensioners.
“Anas Sarwar and the Labour Party must take responsibility for their actions – including the hugely damaging decision to hike National Insurance – and come clean on the scale of planned cuts.”
On Wednesday, Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said that Labour’s poor polling performance is because the public do not like “honesty”.