ONE has to admire Scottish Labour's brass neck. The pledge by the party to bring back winter fuel payments should it win the next Scottish Parliament elections ("Winter fuel cash pledge not sparked by Holyrood defeat fears, insists Sarwar", The Herald, November 20) is beyond the bizarre. Only last month, Labour MSPs voted against a Holyrood motion calling on the UK Government to reverse its cuts to the payments, and Scottish Labour MPs at Westminster trooped into the lobbies to support the cut.
I am sure this move has nothing to do with the reaction the party is getting on the doorsteps in advance of three crucial council by-elections, with Labour already suffering recent losses at by-elections in Dundee and Edinburgh. It has been estimated by the UK Government that an additional 50,000 pensioners will be living in relative poverty next year because of cuts to the winter fuel payment. As we are hit with plummeting temperatures, Anas Sarwar as Labour leader in Scotland needs to stand up to Prime Minister Starmer now to support our vulnerable pensioners, not potentially wait until 2026.
Alex Orr, Edinburgh. Read more letters Holyrood is the only way to protect Scotland. Go for it, Stephen Flynn Why can't SNP MSPs just own up and apologise when they've done wrong? SNP MSPs have not done enough STEPHEN Flynn’s decision to seek to be elected as the SNP candidate for the Aberdeen South and North Kincardine constituency at the next Scottish Election has caused much debate, not all.