Humza Yousaf slates Labour for 'wasting time' at expense of Waspi women

HUMZA Yousaf tore into Anas Sarwar for his "waste of time" no confidence vote in the Scottish Government which meant MSPs were against the clock to debate justice and compensation for Waspi women.

Scottish Labour ploughed on with their vote of no confidence at Holyrood on Wednesday despite being well aware it would never succeed.

Sarwar's party then followed this up by abstaining as their fellow MSPs backed a call for "compensation in full" to be paid to women impacted by state pension inequality.

They instead pushed an amendment calling for "clarity" on a compensation scheme, which ultimately failed.

READ MORE: John Swinney launches bid for SNP leadership

After Sarwar spoke of a "distracted and divided" Government that puts "party before country" at First Minister's Questions, Yousaf hit back criticising Sarwar's U-turn on supporting women in the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign.

Yousaf told the chamber: "Anas Sarwar asks us to 'concentrate on the day job'. Can I remind him that it was Anas Sarwar and his party that yesterday brought forward a motion of no confidence in this parliament when they knew they were going to lose?

"Due to that waste of time, we had less time to debate justice and compensation for the Waspi women.

"Perhaps Anas Sarwar wanted it that way, because for all the pictures he has with Waspi women, for all the warm words, for all the hugs he gives to the Waspi women, it was a disgrace the Labour party abstained on a motion that demanded compensation for women who have suffered such a disgraceful injustice."

Notably the Tory amendment put forward in the Waspi debate went further than Labour's, as it called on the UK Government to “respond in full” to a report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and to “pay compensation to those affected”.

Elsewhere at FMQs, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross chose to rip into John Swinney's record in government after the former deputy first minister announced a bid for SNP leadership on Thursday morning.

But Yousaf blasted Ross for talking about "personalities" before ripping into "the company he keeps",  reeling off a list of current and former Tory politicians, many of whom have been involved in scandals.

He said: "Douglas Ross served in Boris Johnson's government. He called Boris Johnson an honest man. That would be the Boris Johnson who was not only the architect of a damaging hard Brexit, but Boris Johnson allegedly said to Covid victims 'let the bodies pile up high'.

"Douglas Ross then went on to not only back Liz Trust to the hilt, but he demanded we copy Liz Truss's disastrous tax plans. That is the Liz Truss who is now engaging in hard-right conspiracies about the deep state.

"You can judge a man by the company he keeps, and Douglas Ross's company is Boris Johnson, the Conservative party of Liz Truss, Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, formely Lee Anderson, Mark Menzies, Peter Bone, Chris Pincher, Andrew Bridgen, Frank Hester, and I can see Douglas Ross looking more and more embarrassed."