John Swinney accused of ‘misrepresenting’ Andy Burnham’s plans on pensions

John Swinney has been accused of “misrepresenting” announcements made by Andy Burnham on social care and the state pension.

Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra said the reforms announced by the prime minister earlier this week will result in “significant additional funding for Scotland”.

But the first minister has posted on social media that the changes would see the income of Scottish pensioners reduced in order to “pay for social care in England” – a claim he repeated in the chamber at FMQs.

Burnham delivered his first speech since becoming party leader to the Labour conference this week, pledging to establish a National Care Service in England.

This will be partly funded by the scrapping of the pension triple lock from April 2030, when the UK Government will change the mechanism so pensions will rise either by inflation or 2.5 per cent.

Marra raised the first minister’s comments while also questioning the Scottish Government’s approach to public service reform, including its own plans on social care.

He said: “The first minister and the SNP have misrepresented the position of the UK Government on social care reform and now find themselves on the same side as Reform and the Tories.

“John Swinney knows that pensions will continue to increase every year, and he knows that the prime minister’s reforms will result in very significantly increased funding for Scotland.

“That money can be spent however the Scottish Government likes – whether it is on fixing Scotland’s own social care crisis, on education, or even creating new financial benefits for pensions. All of these reforms are huge issues for the country.”

But Swinney continued to argue Scots pensioners would lose out in the proposals.

He replied: “The consequence of the changes announced by the prime minster on Tuesday will be that pensioners in Scotland will lose out on £2,000 a year and they will get no enhancement in the provisions proposed by the prime minister, because all of that money will be used to pay for social care in England.”

Free personal care for over 65s is already available in Scotland. That dates back to a 2002 Act, brought forward by the previous Scottish Labour Government, which abolished charges.

It was extended in 2019 by the SNP Government to include adults who require care due to degenerative and other conditions.

Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay described the move by Burnham to scrap the triple-lock as “wrong”.

Swinney used the opportunity to launch an attack on commitments made by the Better Together campaign in the run-up to the independence referendum.

He said: “Let me be the first to point out in parliament today that these changes proposed by the Labour Government in Westminster follow on from solemn commitments given to the people of Scotland in 2014, that our pensions were safe with the United Kingdom.

“Well, now we know in 2026 that pensions are under attack from a Westminster Labour government. It demonstrates that what the people of Scotland were told in 2014 was a lot of absolute rubbish.

“We’ve been taken out of the European Union, we're now going to lose our pensions. Scotland needs to have independence.”