THE government’s £5 billion cuts to welfare benefits amounts to a return to austerity, a Labour MP has said, in sharp contradiction to the party’s leader in Scotland Anas Sarwar.

Speaking to Holyrood Magazine, Alloa and Grangemouth MP Brian Leishman said: “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that these cuts are going to impoverish already vulnerable, disadvantaged people living in our society today.

“These are the people that we should be throwing our arms around and helping.