Anas Sarwar calls for urgent legislation on cost of living

Anas Sarwar has called for emergency legislation to be brought before Holyrood

Scottish labour leader Anas Sarwar has called for urgent legislation to help deal with the cost of living crisis.

Mr Sarwar said the economic crisis was a national emergency like the Covid-19 pandemic and required a radical response.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said "significant action" was already being taken.

Both Mr Sarwar and Ms Sturgeon have warned that lives could be lost without more support.

Scottish Labour has published its proposals for action on the cost of living around housing, transport costs, debt and reducing bills for households and businesses.

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These include a temporary rent freeze, a winter evictions ban, cancelling school meal debt, temporarily halving rail fares and capping the cost of bus journeys.

The party wants emergency cost of living legislation brought before the Scottish Parliament in the first week after Holyrood returns from recess in September.

It says addressing the cost of living crisis must be the "first priority" of both the Scottish government and the Scottish Parliament.

Labour has also called on the UK government to take action, including freezing energy prices for six months, which would save a typical household £1,000.

Anas Sarwar said the situation was a "national emergency"

Speaking to BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Sarwar said the cost of living crisis was a "national emergency" that should be viewed on the scale of Covid-19.

He warned that without more action "lives could be lost as we push more and more people into poverty".

'Genuine emergency budget'

Last week the Scottish government announced it would carry out an emergency budget review in light of the cost of living crisis, but Scottish Labour says it has failed to produce concrete actions using the powers available.

Mr Sarwar told Good Morning Scotland there was a reserve of £241m in the Scottish budget.

He called for a "genuine" emergency budget review that "gets the eyes open" on where money is available and what support can be given to people right now rather than "hoarding money for later down the road".

"The rainy day has arrived," he said. "We need to support people."

But the Scottish government's business minister Ivan McKee told Good Morning Scotland that Mr Sarwar was "not understanding the numbers very well" and the remaining money was needed to "smooth things over" through the year and make sure the Scottish government didn't run out of money.

He said the Scottish government was "absolutely having a look at all measures that could make an impact" and "what possibility there is to free up additional cash to be able to support the most vulnerable on top of all the work and funding we've put in place".

Nicola Sturgeon will chair an energy summit

Nicola Sturgeon told the BBC the Scottish government was "already taking significant action", but the key levers lie with the UK government.

'Looming disaster'

This week the Scottish government announced it will hold an energy summit, to be chaired by Nicola Sturgeon, that will bring together energy companies and voluntary sector organisations working around poverty.

Ms Sturgeon told the BBC she wanted to make sure that the Scottish government was "genuinely doing everything we can" to help, but she also wanted all those involved to come together to call on the UK government to take action.

"There is a looming disaster that is already unfolding, but it is going to get worse," she said. "This is going to cause destitution and devastation."

She warned: "This will cause loss of life if real action is not taken to stem this crisis".

Nicola Sturgeon has called for the price cap increase to be cancelled

Asked for her views on renationalising energy companies, Ms Sturgeon said it should be "on the table".

She said: "Cancel the price cap increase. Do that first of all and then, yes, how is that then funded, what is the contribution from energy companies and the UK government, what does it mean in terms of the ownership profile of energy companies, all of that has to be on the table.

"But first and foremost, this increase in people's energy bills - further increase in people's energy bills - can't be allowed to go ahead".