£5BILLION welfare blow

Holyrood's annual block grant set to take hit from spending cuts | Former Labour MSP quits party after 35 years over punishing poor

- BY CHRIS MCCALL

KEIR Starmer was facing a backlash in Scotland last night after the biggest shake-up to the UK's welfare system in a generation.

The PM's Work and Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall, announced £5billion in cuts claiming the social security system was "failing the very people it is supposed to help and holding our country back".

Labour ministers will aim to slash welfare spending by £5billion a year by 2030 by making it harder to get disability benefits and restricting payouts to young people.

The reduction in spending will also have a "detrimental" impact on the annual block grant awarded to the Scottish Government.

The cuts prompted one former Scottish Labour MSP to announce he has resigned from the party after 35 years as a member.

Neil Findlay accused the UK Government of trying to "punish and stigmatise the weak, poor and the vulnerable" with reforms to the benefits system.

In a scathing letter to Starmer, the ex-Lothian MSP said: "At a time when more people are going hungry, fuel bills are soaring and the cost of living is leaving working class families unable to afford basics, a Labour Government should be going after the billions lost in corporate tax fraud and avoidance, it should be making those companies that pollute our environment pay and it should be introducing a wealth tax on the super rich.