Labour in ‘hypocrisy’ row over bill
Anas Sarwar is facing accusations from the SNP of “outrageous hypocrisy” around last week’s ruling by the Supreme Court that a key children’s rights bill went beyond Holyrood’s powers.
However, Scottish Labour labelled the attack “pathetic” and accused the SNP of wanting to start constitutional arguments rather than “getting on with their day job”.
The row comes a week after the Supreme Court ruled that the bill which sought to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law was returned to the Scottish Parliament due to it being outside of the parliament’s powers.
Former culture secretary and SNP MSP, Fiona Hyslop, accused Mr Sarwar of a u-turn on the issue after he criticised the Scottish Government following the defeat and called for a refreshed bill to be passed as soon as possible.
The SNP said a tweet from the Scottish Labour leader from when the bill was initially referred to the Supreme Court proved the party “continue to side with the Tories”.
The tweet, responding to the referral by theuk government, said: “The Conservatives are bereft of compassion and have completely lost their way. At this time of national crisis, we should be pulling together to build a fair er scotland, not playing petty political games. Scotland deserves a better opposition .”
Ms Hyslop said: “Once more, we saw scottish labour’s outrageous-hypocrisy and utter irrelevance in Scotland as they continue to side with the Tories.
“On a day where we see the hard truth of the limits of devolution, not one single Labour MSP could bring themselves to criticise the Westminster Government.
“It appears Scottish Labour would rather disparage the Scottish Parliament than protect it and its ability to protect our children from the worst of the Tories.” However the attack resulted in a stinging rebuke from Scottish Labour who labelled it “baseless”.
The party’s constitution spokesperson, Sarah Boyack, said: “This pathetic attack from the SNP only proves the point that they are playing politics with children’s rights.
“It is surprising that th es np to want to bring this up again after their games have been exposed by the Supreme Court.”