“But more of a problem even than that are the policy choices,” he added, reeling off austerity-minded decisions to pare back pensioner benefits and keep in place Conservative-era welfare policies. “They have just been catastrophic disasters,” Findlay said.
The move to scrap the universal winter fuel allowance for the elderly — and the handling of the announcement — has been a particular concern for those across the party in Scotland. “There have definitely been some issues around the comms from government, particularly in the way No. 10 presents itself,” a Labour frontbencher at Holyrood said.
That has opened up a path, too, for another figure looking to disrupt the status quo: Nigel Farage and his right-wing, populist Reform UK movement.
Despite having little presence (or even a national leader) in Scotland, Farage’s party is currently on course to win enough seats to upset the balance of next year’s Scottish election — as well as Labour’s campaigning strategy aimed at projecting a very similar message about the need for change.
“It’s the ‘fuck you’ and the ‘fuck everyone’ vote,” one Scottish Labour aide said of Reform voters. “And lots of people feel like that right now. It’s a worry for us because the landscape becomes much more volatile with a high Reform vote.”
President Anas
To counter both Reform and the lingering focus from voters on the travails of Labour in Westminster, multiple Scottish Labour insiders at the party’s conference came to the same conclusion: that to win they must run a presidential-style campaign over the next 14 months focused on the personality of Sarwar as a contrast to his SNP rival.