We didn’t have to wait long for the new UK Labour government to indicate how grim things are going to get for some of the most vulnerable folk in our communities as Austerity 2.0 was launched just before Westminster broke up for summer.

First, we saw Scottish Labour MPs putting party before country as they failed to join some of their colleagues in backing the SNP’s call to scrap the two-child cap, which is pushing children across the UK into poverty. With seven Labour MPs from the rest of the UK suspended for six months for backing the SNP amendment in the King’s Speech debate, we are starting to see the party’s true colours.

And after that refusal to help lift thousands of children out of poverty, pensioners are the latest victims, with last week’s announcement by Chancellor Rachel Reeves of a cut to the Winter Fuel Payment.

The confirmation that this payment will no longer be available to all those over the pension age, reducing the number of people eligible from 11.4 million to 1.5 million, will put pensioners in the Highlands and Islands, not least Orkney, at risk of going cold this winter.

And it means that the SNP Government will have to find around £100m to keep the payment universal when it is devolved in September, despite Labour saying previously that it would be protected.

Anas Sarwar is now backing the cut despite his ‘Read my lips – no austerity under Labour’ statement during the General Election. His deputy, Jackie Baillie, said in 2018 that she would ‘always fight to ensure this payment is protected’. It seems that fight has now ended.

It is no comfort to me that the SNP repeatedly warned of cuts like this, but it is no less disappointing to see Labour enact them as they attempt to stick to Tory fiscal rules.

The question now is: where do the priorities of Labour MPs and MSPs really lie?

It is time for Labour parliamentarians to call on this UK Government to change tack and reverse their plans for most austerity, or pensioners in Orkney and across the Highlands and Islands will pay a high price for this cut.

I suspect that the first austerity actions of this Labour government will be talking points during surgeries this weekend. I am really looking forward to getting round the Bignold Park for the Orkney County Show on Saturday and will be hosting surgeries in Rousay on Monday 12th and in Kirkwall on Tuesday 13th August.

To book a place at either of these, please email emma.roddick.msp@parliament.scot including your name, address and contact number, or phone to make an appointment on 01463 563036.

Please remember that you do not need to wait for a surgery in order to raise an issue with me. You can contact my office at any time via the same email and phone number, or by post to M4.04 the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, EH99 1SP.

This is a regular column by SNP MSP Emma Roddick. All Highlands and Islands MSPs have been offered the same space in The Orkney News to share their personal views.