Labour by-election candidate says Scottish party has 'differences of opinion' with Keir Starmer

Michael Shanks said there are disagreements around gender reform and the two-child benefit cap

The Scottish Labour candidate in a crucial by-election has said there are “differences of opinion” between the party in Scotland and its UK leader, Sir Keir Starmer.

Michael Shanks, who is standing in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, said there are disagreements around gender reform and the two-child benefit cap. He said he would vote to abolish the latter, but Sir Keir has said it will not be scrapped if his party wins power.

However, Mr Shanks said this demonstrated the “maturity of devolution”. The SNP has accused Labour of being “mired in contradiction”.

Scottish Labour's Michael Shanks. Picture: John Devlin

The by-election was triggered after 11,896 voters in the constituency signed a recall petition to oust the former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier, who was suspended from the House of Commons for breaking Covid rules. She travelled by train at the height of pandemic in September 2020, having tested positive for the virus.

It will be fiercely contested by both the SNP and Labour. Mr Shanks urged the former to ensure the by-election is held as soon as possible, on October 5. Parliamentary rules dictate that the party which most recently held a seat must move a writ that would vacate it, should an MP be felled by a recall petition.

Speaking as he launched the SNP's campaign, First Minister Humza Yousaf said: “We’ll do everything in our gift to get this by-election as early as possible.”

He said Mr Shanks is “right to be deeply uncomfortable at Keir Starmer’s position on the two-child limit and on backing cruel Tory policies, because that will ultimately be what this by-election comes down to”. He added: “The voters of Rutherglen and Hamilton West have a really stark choice. They can either vote for an excellent SNP MP who will stand up for them and stand up for Scotland, or they can have a Labour MP who will do Keir Starmer’s bidding and back cruel Tory policies which have seen tens of thousands of children – many of them in this very constituency – plunged into poverty.”

He said Mr Shanks “will do whatever, I’m certain, Keir Starmer tells him to do”.

Mr Yousaf said the SNP welcomes the by-election. Asked if he had any sympathy for Ms Ferrier, who had the party whip removed when her Covid rule-breaking came to light, he said she was responsible for her own actions, adding: “I think we can all agree they were incredibly reckless.”

Katy Loudon, the SNP candidate and a local South Lanarkshire councillor, said she had not spoken to Ms Ferrier since 2020.

Mr Shanks was repeatedly asked about the disagreements between Scottish Labour and the UK party as he launched his own campaign in Rutherglen, which took place a short walk away from the SNP’s event.

Sir Keir recently said a UK Labour Government would retain the two-child limit on claiming some benefits. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said his party continues to oppose the cap, but argued Labour "will inherit economic carnage and that means we will not be able to do everything we want". He said: "We will continue to press any incoming UK Labour government to move as fast as they can within our fiscal rules to remove this heinous policy.”

Sir Keir’s party has also dropped its support for allowing people to change their legal sex without a medical diagnosis, despite Scottish Labour backing this, and has refused to rule out keeping the so-called bedroom tax.

Mr Shanks told journalists: “The reality is Keir Starmer will be a fantastic prime minister for the whole of the UK. We’re fully behind him on that.

"We have differences of opinion on certain things. That’s the maturity of devolution into its third decade. The reality is we should have different policy positions in Scotland than the rest of the UK, because that’s why we created the Scottish Parliament in the first place.”

He said the SNP wants to make the by-election all about divisions in Labour “because they’ve got nothing to offer themselves”.

Asked if he backed the two-child cap, Mr Shanks said: “No, I absolutely don't. It’s a heinous policy dreamt up by a Conservative Party that's so out of touch with the people’s priorities. Scottish Labour is opposed to the two-child cap. We’ll continue to oppose it, and I’ll campaign against it.”

He said the Labour Party across the UK is committed to reforming Universal Credit.

Asked why he wanted to join a parliamentary party that does not accept Scottish Labour's point of view, Mr Shanks said: “Well, because I’ll be a Scottish Labour MP. I’ll campaign within the Labour group to abolish the two-child cap.”

He said he would vote against the two-child benefit cap and the bedroom tax, and argued UK Labour wants to abolish these policies as part of its Universal Credit review but has to accept the reality of the economic situation it will inherit.

Mr Shanks said the differences between the Scottish and UK parties on these issues “are far smaller than they’ve been made out to be”.

He said: “Actually, we’re united on reforming the policies around gender recognition. We’re united on building a fairer economy for all. There’s far, far more that unites the Labour Party, and that’s what we’ll be fighting for across the whole of the UK.”

He said he supports the “de-medicalisation” of the gender recognition process for trans people.

The South Lanarkshire seat is the first parliamentary test for Mr Yousaf as leader of the SNP, but also the first major election in almost 25 years where Peter Murrell will not be at the helm. The former party chief executive was seen as a driving force behind the SNP’s formidable campaigning machine.

He resigned earlier this year and was subsequently arrested as part of the police probe into the SNP’s finances, before being released without charge pending further investigation.

While Mr Murrell was a “proven election winner”, the First Minister said the party’s best assets were its members, who would be “flooding the streets” in the constituency and “knocking every single door multiple times”.