July 5, 2025
By Lucy Ashton
Ordinary Scots are paying the price for Sir Keir Starmer’s “catastrophic” year as Prime Minister, it was claimed this week.
On the first anniversary of his election win, the Scottish Conservatives said the Labour leader’s litany of broken promises and U-turns had betrayed voters who placed their trust in him and led to higher bills for everyone.
During his first 12 months in Downing Street, Starmer has:
- Ended universal winter fuel payments to pensioners, before being forced into a partial U-turn by the public outcry – both of which the SNP replicated in Scotland
- Hiked employers’ national insurance contributions, which has led to job losses, as well as pay freezes and price rises for staff and customers, respectively
- Devastated farming communities with inheritance tax rises
- Caused job losses in the North East of England and higher energy bills by blocking North Sea oil and gas projects and raising taxes on the sector
- Botched plans to reform welfare spending, which will mean more tax rises to fill the resulting black hole
Deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said Scotland and the UK “can’t afford another four years of a Prime Minister who is hopelessly out of his depth”.
Rachael Hamilton said: “Keir Starmer’s first year in office has been a catastrophic series of broken promises and U-turns that people up and down the country are paying for.
“Labour’s jobs tax and family farm tax have been utterly devastating for the careers, pay packets and bills of ordinary people.
“Their hostility to North Sea oil and gas is not just crushing livelihoods and communities across the North East, it’s leading to higher fuel bills for everyone by making us more reliant on foreign imports.
“Ending universal winter fuel payments for pensioners was another broken election pledge and a betrayal of some of our most vulnerable people, one which the SNP shamefully copied in Scotland.
“Starmer has betrayed all those who voted for him by breaking his vow not to raise taxes – and he’ll have to hike them again in the autumn after his humiliating surrender to Labour MPs on welfare reform.
“Hardworking Scots can’t afford another four years of a Prime Minister who is hopelessly out of his depth – not when we already have the highest taxes in the UK thanks to another failing left-wing government in the SNP.”
Top of page: Sir Keir Starmer and calamitous Chancellor Rachel Reeves.