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Neil Findlay MSP speaking during the Trident debate on the third day of the Scottish Labour Conference at the Perth Concert Hall in Scotland, November 2015
FORMER MSP Neil Findlay has resigned from the party he says “betrays the people who voted for it.”
The resignation from the one-time contender for the Scottish Labour leadership comes less than 24 hours after Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced £5 billion in cuts to social security, sparking outcry from disability organisations and from politicians across the party divide.
Ms Kendall’s statement proved to be the final straw for Mr Findlay, who after “over three and a half decades” in the party, nine years as a councillor and 10 as an MSP, told Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a stinging letter: “I can no longer remain a member of a party that lied to the British people at the last election and with regularity betrays the people who voted for it.”
Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
