Shona Robison says Anas Sarwar ‘in hiding’ after welfare cuts announced

Shona Robison said Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was “in hiding” as she accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of introducing a new wave of austerity.

Analysis by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimates that around three million families will lose out as a result of the benefit changes announced in today’s spring statement.

Robison, the Scottish Government finance secretary, criticised the plan set out by Reeves, describing it as “austerity on stilts”.  

The changes, aimed at saving £5bn in benefit payments, were widely reported ahead of the announcement and estimates suggest three million families will be impacted by 2030. 

Robison said: “This is austerity, no one can deny it. Making people poorer is austerity, and when he [Sarwar] comes out of hiding, we will see what he has to say about it.” 

Asked how the Scottish Government would seek to offset the cuts, Robison said it would need to “turbocharge” efforts to shrink administration costs, corporate costs, and shared services, and look at public bodies in the next few years to “give ourselves some choices”.  

She said the Scottish Government would “need to do more” to “avoid making cuts to the most vulnerable”, and said it was starting from “a principled point of not pushing people into poverty”. 

She said the government was exploring alternatives so that it does not need to impose similar welfare cuts. 

Robison told members of the media: “What I am saying is we are going to do everything we can to avoid going anywhere near replicating what the UK Government has set out.  

“That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be supporting people back into work, and we want to look at for example the Right to Try [work guarantee], and whether that will assist people with disabilities into work.” 

She added: “What we are not going to do is push Scottish kids into poverty – we are are just not going to do that. So, we will find routes to avoid doing that.”   

Earlier in the day, the Fraser of Allander Institute, an independent think tank, said changes announced in the chancellor's spring statement would make the outlook for Scotland's budget “significantly more challenging”.

Joao Sousa, deputy director of the Fraser of Allander Institute, described the UK Government's “scramble” to announce major welfare reforms as “disheartening”.