Former Labour MSP quits party over welfare cuts

Former Scottish Labour MSP Neil Findlay has quit the party over the UK government's plan to cut £5bn a year from the welfare budget.

It came as members of the party's Holyrood group, including a frontbencher, also voiced criticism of the proposals.

Sir Keir Starmer says the current social security system is "unfair to taxpayers" and lets down claimants.

Mr Findlay - who was an MSP between 2010 and 2021 - said Labour was choosing to "punish and stigmatize the weak, poor and the vulnerable".

His resignation came as Scottish Labour public health spokesperson Carol Mochan called the social security reforms a "mistake".

Mr Findlay, a left-wing trade union member who ran unsuccessfully for the Scottish Labour leadership in 2014, announced his resignation in a letter to Sir Keir.

He accused Labour ministers of having "lied" to the electorate. The former MSP cited the cut to winter fuel payments for pensioners, the decision over compensation for Waspi women, the two-child benefits cap and handling of the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery.

Mr Findlay told BBC Radio Scotland's Lunchtime Live: "The final straw was the attack on some of the weakest and most vulnerable people in society, people who are long-term sick and disabled."

He added: "The inference is that these people are skivers and shirkers and they are milking in the system."

Mr Findlay cited senior members of the Labour government, including the prime minster, accepting freebies from wealthy donors. He said it was them, not benefits claimants, who were "milking the system".

In his letter, the trade unionist predicted Labour "will be lucky to come third" in next year's Scottish election, would lose power in Wales for the first time and "faces being routed" at the next UK general election.

"This will be down to your disastrous tenure as leader," Mr Findlay told the prime minister.

He added: "In solidarity with the individuals and families who will be affected by these vindictive and brutal policies and for my own sanity, dignity and self respect I can no longer remain a member of the Labour Party."

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said the UK government is right to reform the welfare system but added any changes must be "fair".

He also denied that Labour ministers were imposing austerity.

Mochan, a member of his Holyrood leadership team, contradicted him when responding to the UK government's announcement.

She posted on X: "Austerity has never been a sustainable path to growth. We cannot balance the books on the backs of people who require benefits just to have a passable standard of living.

"These reforms are a mistake and should not go ahead."

Labour MSP Monica Lennon, another former leadership contender, said she was "extremely sorry" Mr Findlay had left the party.

She posted on X: "The UK government is going in the wrong direction on welfare. For the sake of my constituents, I urge ministers to stop the cuts to disabled people."

SNP MSP George Adam urged Sarwar to "find a backbone and oppose these draconian cuts".

Questioned if Mochan should be sacked by the leadership, UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks said he would not be "drawn on what individuals are going to do in the Scottish Parliament".

He added that the welfare reforms would protect the most vulnerable people in society while making the social security system "sustainable for the long term".

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said the government's proposed welfare reforms would save £5bn a year from 2030.

She announced on Tuesday that ministers would tighten the eligibility criteria for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) from November 2026 and freeze incapacity benefits under Universal Credit, with payments for new claimants to be reduced.

Although the benefit is being phased out in Scotland and replaced by the devolved Adult Disability Payment, any reduction on spending on PIP will have a knock-on effect on the Scottish government's budget.

The Fraser of Allander Institute, which is an economic research unit at the University of Strathclyde, forecasts that for every £1bn cut from spending on PIP, the Scottish government would lose between £90m and £115m in Treasury funding.

The UK government cuts come with extra investment in employability services in the hope of bringing more people back into the workforce.

Sir Keir said the social security system was "actively incentivising" people away from work and represented an "affront to the values of our country".

"This is not just unfair to taxpayers, it is also a bad long-term outcome for many of those people," he said.

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: "Mr Findlay is a private citizen, he is entitled to his views."