Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has appealed to voters to give his party five years “to fix the Scottish National party’s mess”, as he unveiled a manifesto promising more homes, tax cuts and a smaller public sector. Speaking at the manifesto launch in Edinburgh, Sarwar said the SNP government under John Swinney was “tired, full of excuses and out of ideas”.
With less than 25 days until the Holyrood election on 7 May, Labour is trying to reverse a slump in support that has left it third or even fourth in recent polls, behind the SNP, Reform UK and the Scottish Greens. Sarwar insisted voters would “choose change” as the campaign progressed, pointing to the first televised leaders’ debate on Sunday as evidence of the SNP’s lack of direction.
The manifesto includes pledges to provide families with a £3,000 childcare tax break, lift property taxes for first-time buyers, build 52,300 affordable homes and hire 2,000 extra teachers to boost literacy and numeracy. Sarwar also committed to cutting the number of quangos by a third, streamlining NHS bureaucracy, and creating a new Scottish Treasury unit to reduce public sector waste.
On tax, Scottish Labour has shifted to the centre, aiming to reduce rates for middle earners and cut business rates when finances allow. The party also plans to scrap the SNP’s ban on new nuclear power stations and streamline the planning system to speed up development. Business group CBI Scotland welcomed the proposals.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies gave cautious approval to the manifesto, noting its “relatively restrained” proposals and lack of expensive uncosted promises. However, the thinktank warned that Labour would still need to cut some services due to unavoidable spending pressures. The SNP’s campaign director, Angus Robertson, dismissed the pledges as “broken promise after broken promise”, citing energy bill rises, the Grangemouth refinery closure and the winter fuel payment cut under the UK Labour government.
