Stephen Flynn: Anas Sarwar a ‘hard man to find’ as he tries to ‘justify’ UK Government decisions

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has branded Anas Sarwar as a “hard man to find” as he attacked the Scottish Labour leader’s failure to oppose the two-child cap on benefits.

Addressing SNP conference on its second day, Flynn said Sarwar had promised to “stand up to Keir Starmer and his government if he disagreed with their decisions”.

He continued: “We were promised that he would be the hard man of Scottish politics and wouldn't be found wanting in standing up for Scotland.

“Turns out he's less hard man, and more hard man to find, because he's tucked away trying to think of the latest excuse to justify the shifting sands coming from his bosses in London.”

And he hit out at Sarwar’s suggestion that problems facing the Scottish Government now in terms of the budget was “nothing to do with Westminster” as “nonsense".

He said: “You can't on one hand boast about the so-called broad shoulders of the union whilst at the very same time wash the other hand of any responsibility for the financial decisions that same union imposes.”

Responding to the speech, Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “Instead of looking to deflect blame and make excuses, the SNP should set out a real plan to fix the mess it has made.”

Her party earlier this week published a dossier which it claimed highlighted the SNP’s “financial mismanagement”.

Finance secretary Shona Robison will this week deliver a statement to parliament in which she will set out a serious of spending cuts to balance the Scottish budget.

Flynn also criticised UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who he accused of being an “apprentice” to former Tory chancellor George Osborne when it came to austerity.

And he said the UK Government was looking to Scotland “with pound signs in their eyes” as it planned to set up the publicly owned energy firm, GB Energy.

In echoes of the SNP’s old slogan, he said: “Whilst they may brand it GB Energy, we all know that it’s Scotland’s energy.”

Reflecting on the recent general election result, he urged delegates not to hide from the “harsh reality” that they lost the trust of the public.

He said: “The only right response is to listen, and then act. Those actions must involve change – the change of knowing that we must re-root ourselves in the priorities of Scottish people – the priorities they are telling us we have moved away from.”

Speaking to Holyrood earlier this month, Flynn said it was “without question the SNP lost the trust of the public”.

As well as his party’s record in government and the ongoing investigation into the SNP’s finances, he partially blamed the Bute House Agreement with the Scottish Greens for having “eroded” trust.

He claimed the SNP would have performed even worse had the coalition with the Greens still been in place.