The SNP's windfall tax opposition shows they are not on the side of working people

Anas Sarwar at last week’s Labour conference.

At Scottish Labour conference last weekend, one message rang out clear: it’s time for change.

After 17 years of the SNP and 14 years of the Tories it is clearer than ever that both deserve to lose – the two governments are mired in scandal, plagued by division and failing to deliver on the basics.

It is up to us in Scottish Labour to now convince the people of Scotland that we deserve to win, and at conference last weekend we set out what change with Scottish Labour looks like.

Change with Scottish Labour is an end to the deadly crisis engulfing our NHS.

Right now almost 1 in 6 Scots are stuck on an NHS waiting list, with Audit Scotland warning just last week that the government has “no vision” for our struggling health service.

This crisis is the result of years of SNP mismanagement, while Tory economic carnage has made a bad picture worse.

Labour’s plans to close the non-dom tax loophole will deliver £134 million every year in funding – and Scottish Labour would spend every penny of that in our NHS.

Our plans will drive down waiting lists by providing an extra 160,000 NHS appointments every single year.

But it is not just our NHS that’s in trouble.

After 17 years of SNP failure and 14 of Tory failure, our economy flatlining, Scots are poorer and every single public institution is weaker.

Our two governments’ economic failure has starved the public purse of funding and left us with a low-growth, low pay economy.

The SNP’s solution as we saw last week is to keep hiking tax, because they believe people earning over £28,500 a year have the broadest shoulders.

But we cannot keep paying more for less.

It’s time to use the levers we have to unlock Scotland’s economic potential – from skills to planning to infrastructure.

At the heart of Scottish Labour’s plan for growth is Scotland’s vast potential in green industries.

Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan will be a game-changer here in Scotland, delivering lower bills, warmer homes, 50,000 clean energy jobs, and a publicly-owned GB Energy company based here.

To help fund this, Labour has set out plans for a windfall tax on the excess profits of energy giants, who are raking in billions of pounds during a cost of living crisis.

Given the choice between helping struggling Scots, whose bills have risen by nearly 60 per cent in two years, and defending energy giants whose profits have soared to historic levels, the SNP and – less surprisingly – the Tories have chosen to side with the energy giants.

The SNP now holds the absurd position that a nurse a should pay more tax, while energy giants raking in billions in profits should pay less.

There is no doubt left – the SNP is not on the side of working people.

The choice Scottish voters face at the next election couldn’t be clearer: a Labour party on the side of those struggling to pay their energy bills, or the SNP and Tory politicians defending the status quo of higher bills and economic stagnation.

It is a choice between change with Labour, or more of the same division and decline with the SNP and the Tories.

Stephen Flynn squandered potential moment of unity over Gaza ceasefire

Last week, the House of Commons supported Labour’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Palestine.

Labour’s motion sought to unite all parties in calling for; an immediate end to the fighting, the free flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the release of hostages, and a re-commitment to a two-state solution with full recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state, alongside a secure Israel.

But what should have been a moment of pride – when politicians came together to call for peace – was turned into a farce by the Tories and the SNP.

Instead of coming together to support calls for an immediate ceasefire, Stephen Flynn, in a fit of pique, led his SNP MPs out of the chamber alongside the Tories in protest at the actions of the speaker.

What could have been a moment of unity was squandered by the self-importance of SNP and Tory MPs.

This vote wasn’t about the SNP. It wasn’t about Labour or the Tories either.

It was about sending a signal from the UK Parliament that the violence and loss of innocent life in Palestine and Israel must stop now.

That should have been the focus of the debate. But the voices of the Palestinians and Israelis, and those in our communities calling for peace, were lost as the SNP and Tories plunged Parliament into chaos.

As an attack on Rafah looms, I and the entire Labour Party are calling for an end to the violence and a pathway to a lasting peace.

I hope politicians of all parties can put their differences aside and unite to make that happen.

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