Rutherglen candidate: Scottish Labour has “differences of opinion” with Starmer

Scottish Labour’s candidate in a key by-election has said there are “differences of opinion” between the Scottish and UK parties and pledged to campaign against the two-child benefit cap, which Keir Starmer has said the party plans to keep.

According to the Scotsman, Michael Shanks – Scottish Labour’s candidate in the crucial Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election – today condemned the cap as “heinous” and reiterated Scottish Labour’s opposition to it, telling journalists: “We’ll continue to oppose it, and I’ll campaign against it.”

Speaking at the launch of his by-election campaign, Shanks argued that differing stances between Scottish Labour and the national party show the “maturity of devolution into its third decade”.

“The reality is we should have different policy positions in Scotland than the rest of the UK, because that’s why we created the Scottish parliament in the first place,” the by-election candidate said.

He argued that the Scottish National Party (SNP) wants to make the by-election about divisions within Labour “because they’ve got nothing to offer themselves”.

The long-expected by-election in the seat was finally confirmed on Tuesday after 15% of constituents signed a recall petition triggered by former MP Margaret Ferrier’s Commons suspension for breaking Covid rules, surpassing the 10% threshold required for a by-election.

Ahead of a campaign visit to the constituency over the weekend, SNP leader Humza Yousaf claimed that Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar had been “posted missing” since Starmer’s announcement about the two-child cap and accused Scottish Labour of being ‘powerless’.

“Any Labour candidate now standing in Scotland – including here in Rutherglen – will now do so on a commitment that they will maintain among the very worst of Tory policies,” the Scottish First Minister said, suggesting that the issue may become a focus of the by-election campaign.

Sarwar declared after Starmer’s announcement that Scottish Labour “continue to oppose the two-child limit”, telling the Daily Record: “We continue to believe that it exacerbates poverty, and we continue to believe that it needs to change.”

The Scottish Labour leader continued: “What we recognise is an incoming Labour government will inherit economic carnage, and that means we will not be able to do everything we want, and we won’t be able to do everything as fast as we want.

“But we will continue to press any incoming UK Labour government to move as fast as they can within our fiscal rules to remove this heinous policy.”

Shanks reportedly claimed that Labour nationally wants to abolish the two-child benefit cap and the bedroom tax as part of a review of Universal Credit but has to acknowledge the reality of the economic situation an incoming Labour government would face.

He told journalists that the differences between Scottish and UK Labour on such policy issues “are far smaller than they’ve been made out to be”.

“Actually, we’re united on reforming the policies around gender recognition. We’re united on building a fairer economy for all. There’s far, far more that unites the Labour Party, and that’s what we’ll be fighting for across the whole of the UK,” the candidate said.