A Scottish Labour MP has denied the Chancellor’s expected speech on a £20 billion black hole in the public purse will lead to austerity.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to set out the state of the spending shortfall in a speech to the UK Parliament on Monday, with reports suggesting key hospital and road building schemes could be cut.
But newly elected East Renfrewshire MP Blair McDougall denied there would be severe public spending cutbacks.
He was asked on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show programme whether there would be a return to austerity following the Chancellor’s speech.
He said: “No, I don’t think we are (returning to austerity). I think we’ve said in the election, and you’ll see from Rachel being clear about where it is we’re going to raise more money.”
He added: “I think Rachel deserves a lot of credit for trying to be honest with the public and saying exactly what the extent of the mess we’ve inherited is.
“People don’t think that things are going to be easy, they accept that change is going to take time but what they want to know is what is the direction of travel and how are we going to get there and the first step of that is about being honest.”
Mr McDougall was asked again to clarify whether there would be austerity under Labour. He said: “No. We are going to invest in public services. We’re going to raise people’s standards of living, that’s our whole mission.”
It comes as Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar faced fierce criticism from the SNP after he pledged “read my lips – no austerity under Labour” during the General Election campaign.
Now, SNP MP Dave Doogan said: “People in Scotland voted for change at Westminster. They didn’t vote for cuts to hospitals, railways and roads. They didn’t vote to push more children into poverty – and they certainly didn’t vote for another decade of Westminster austerity cuts imposed by a Labour Government.
“The SNP repeatedly warned the Labour Party that their fixation with copying damaging Tory spending plans and fiscal rules would mean around £18 billion of cuts or tax rises. Labour denied it through the election – but now they admit the cuts will be even deeper.”
Mr Doogan went on to say the Chancellor “must not break the Labour Party’s election promise that there will be no cuts. Instead, she must deliver the major funding boost that the NHS and public services need”.
