Angela Rayner: We won’t dictate coverage to Scottish Labour
The UK authorities won’t dictate what place Scottish Labour ought to tackle key welfare points, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has stated.
Anas Sarwar’s social gathering north of the border has diverged from Sir Keir Starmer’s administration on the two-child advantages cap, the winter gasoline fee and compensation for Waspi girls.
Chatting with BBC Scotland Information on a go to to a Glasgow shipyard, Rayner stated devolution allowed Scottish Labour to take completely different coverage positions.
She careworn that each wings of the social gathering had been aligned of their intention to scale back poverty.
The deputy prime minister stated her social gathering had supported devolution “for a cause”. She insisted it was not so the Westminster social gathering may dictate “to Scottish Labour what they do”.
Rayner advised BBC Scotland Information: “That is about working with Scottish Labour. So they might wish to do issues differently however finally our values and our goals are completely the identical.”
She stated Labour politicians throughout the UK shared the identical objectives – bettering baby poverty charges, housing, employment and public providers.
The minister stated it was proper that politicians with “pores and skin within the sport of their native space” determined what labored for them and that the UK authorities labored collaboratively moderately than “patronising” nations and areas.
She added that Sarwar would all the time get a “listening ear” from her and Sir Keir.
Sarwar’s social gathering has publicly opposed the two-child cap on advantages, and referred to as for the Scottish authorities to hurry up efforts to mitigate the coverage north of the border.
The cap was initially launched in 2017 by the UK Conservative authorities however has been stored in place Sir Keir’s Labour administration, which says it can not afford to scrap it.
Rayner argued {that a} £22bn “black gap” within the financial system meant the UK authorities had been pressured to make “robust selections” on welfare.
She stated tackling baby poverty was about a couple of coverage.
The UK minister added: “The final Labour authorities introduced figures down for baby poverty, we’re decided to do the identical once more.”
Labour received a landslide victory each north and south of the border in July, however has since seen help decline within the polls.
The deputy prime minister stated the UK authorities had taken on a “dire inheritance” and that insurance policies affecting Scotland – similar to Nice British Power and reformed employees’ rights – would “take time to filter via”.
She additionally defended the chancellor’s deliberate go to to China amid surging borrowing prices.
The Labour minister stated: “The home financial system is a global financial system, and due to this fact it is proper that the chancellor goes and talks to different nations round commerce.”
