Labour was torn to shreds in a brutal edition of BBC Question Time, as audience members took turns slamming Sir Keir Starmer’s Government. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was repeatedly blasted on Thursday’s episode over the Westminster Government’s behaviour over the past year and was told his party is shedding support.
One audience member warned: “First of all, you took away the heating from the pensioners, now you’re taking away money from people that are disabled and not able to work. I do agree that if people are able to work, they should work, I’ve not got a problem with that. But you’re taking away from the vulnerable before anybody else.
“I’m sure you could find money from millionaires before you hit the people that are on welfare.”
A second fumed: “I know a lot of people that voted for Labour at the last General Election because they wanted change: they didn’t want more of the Conservatives, they thought that by voting Labour they’d have different policies.
“However, now they’re coming to regret that decision because they wanted more support for the vulnerable in our society and now Labour are penalising them more than anything. What they want is less money going towards defence and more money going towards the NHS, and Labour has not done that.
“I don’t know how any Labour MP can turn around at the next general election and say that a vote for them is a vote for change!”
A third St Andrews audience member said: “I think this highlights a real concern, Mr Sarwar, that the Labour Party in Scotland have: instead of spending time highlighting 18 years of SNP failure, you’re having to justify policies that are unpopular that Keir Starmer and the UK Labour Party have been trying to implement.
“So you’re now having to waste your time, spending time justifying the unjustifiable.”
The furious voter feedback came during a debate about welfare reform as the Prime Minister scrambles to avoid a humiliating defeat next Tuesday.
Despite promising he would make no further concessions as he tries to slash Britain’s benefits bill, the Prime Minister reportedly caved in to backbenchers and sacrificed billions to ensure the survival of his reforms.
Mr Sarwar appeared to throw Sir Keir under the bus, insisting that the audience should still back Labour at next year’s Holyrood elections because the Prime Minister is not on the ballot paper.
He said: “Keir Starmer’s not standing to be first minister next year. It’s a straight choice between John Swinney and the SNP or me and Scottish Labour and I’m confident in that choice we will beat the SNP and take that new direction.”
Scotland has a different welfare system to the English and Welsh Personal Independence Payments, so would be largely unaffected by the changes being brought in to eligibility by Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir.
Tory spokesman Andrew Bowie won a surprise round of applause from the audience by pointing out: “It’s astonishing, frankly, to be less than a year into this new Government to see a Prime Minister and a Chancellor with so little authority.
“You’ve got over 120 MPs willing to risk having the whip taken away from them, willing to embarrass the leader, openly speculating about leadership changes – it took us six years to get to the stage where we were openly speculating about leadership changes in the Conservative government. It’s quite incredible.”