Labour needs to show more appreciation of the Scottish dimension in UK politics

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) | Getty Images

The honeymoon it seems may be over for our new Labour Government as it grapples with finances they claim are worse than anticipated, and public uncertainty about the route they have chosen out of the quagmire.

In Scotland, it is particularly important as the Holyrood elections begin to appear over the horizon that they can maintain the confidence of an electorate which delivered 37 seats at Westminster. But while Labour has the opportunity to repeat that success, their leadership will have to find a way of putting forward their programme for government that is clearer about what the impact, and solution, is going to be in Scotland.

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Take for example the winter fuel allowance withdrawn from all pensioners except those who qualify, and have been able to apply successfully for pension credits. To be clear that means that this winter in order to qualify for the support you will have to have a weekly income of less than £218 if you are single and £332.95 if you are a couple .If you are a carer or have severe disabilities you may qualify for more.

At a time when so many pensioner households are dreading what for them will be the third winter in a row struggling to pay fuel bills, that seems incredibly harsh. Yes, there are those with large private pensions or who are wealthy enough not to worry about fuel bills, but what about all those who live in some of the coldest areas of the country and will narrowly miss out? Indeed, as I write this, Age UK’s petition protesting the cuts has garnered 350,00 signatures from those unconvinced that the measure is fair.

For Scottish Labour, that created a particular problem. While the impact in Scotland was not immediately clear, the SNP Government was able to announce it had no option but to follow the same path as Westminster. Yet again we were treated to that old excuse that it is all Westminster’s fault - “if we had the levers of power… etc etc”.

While I doubt there are many people left who still buy that particular line, it did allow them to distract attention, for a while at least, from their own 17 years of incompetence.You could already see the nationalists rolling out the ground for their inevitable grievance strategy as Finance Secretary Shona Robison popped up on the media to outline Scotland’s financial woes and repeat the mantra.

In pure political terms, I suspect that Labour advisers have calculated that it’s best to be blunt with the people now, tell them how bad it is, make the cuts and in five years things will have improved ahead of the next election.

With less than two years until we elect our next parliament at Holyrood, the SNP is in a perilous position and Labour has the upper hand. But the Labour leadership will have to find a better way of expressing its appreciation of the Scottish dimension in UK politics. Otherwise, the prize may be snatched from their grasp.