[Scottish Parliament, 11.09.2024] Responding to Labour MPs yesterday voting down a Conservative motion to keep vital winter fuel payments, Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston said:
“Thousands of pensioners across the Highlands and Islands, where fuel poverty is already higher, will lose out because of Labour’s decision to cut funding for these payments.
“This is a cruel decision that will hurt thousands of elderly people across Scotland, especially in those areas where the cost of heating homes is already disproportionately high.
“However, responsibility for winter fuel payments has recently been devolved to the Scottish Government and so the SNP could still have delivered this support to vulnerable pensioners this winter if they had wanted to.
“Instead, SNP ministers have chosen to follow Labour’s lead and turn their backs on those struggling to heat their homes. Both Labour and the SNP have failed to show the leadership needed to protect those most at risk.
“Yet again, both these central belt-focused parties have shown a shocking and shameful disregard for the needs of those living in the Highlands and Islands”.
ENDS
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