SCOTLAND needs a Budget to end austerity and “deliver a plan for investment and growth,” Labour’s leader in Scotland Anas Sarwar said today.

He said Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget tomorrow “must continue the work of turning the page on those lost Tory years, fixing the foundations and rebuilding our country.”

“Scots know how bad the Tories were, the damage they caused, and why it was so important to remove them from power,” Mr Sarwar said.

He argued that any tax increases “must fall on those with the broadest shoulders, not on working people,” and called for “a significant increase in capital investment” to improve infrastructure, healthcare and education and support sectors such as clean energy, innovation and tourism.

While he accepted SNP ministers at Holyrood had the “right to argue for more money,” he added that they “also have to get better at how they spend money.”

SNP Westminster economy spokesman Dave Doogan hit back at the comments, saying: “Anas Sarwar must think Scottish voters are buttoned up the back.

“During the election, he made the same false promise that the Labour Party would end austerity cuts but, within days of getting into power, they increased them, imposing billions of pounds worth of cuts to public services and household incomes.”

Mr Doogan said that Scottish Labour MPs under Mr Sarwar voted to end winter fuel payments for 900,000 Scottish pensioners and reduce the Scottish government’s budget by over £100 million while also supporting welfare cuts such as the two-child benefit cap, deepening child poverty in Scotland.

He said the real test in the Budget will be if Labour “reverses these damaging cuts and deliver the meaningful investment needed to support public services and put money back in people’s pockets.”