Government ‘riven with internal dissent’, says Swinney after Streeting briefing

The Labour Party is “riven with internal dissent”, Scotland’s First Minister has said, after briefings against the UK Health Secretary.

Wes Streeting was forced to deny he was seeking to oust Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday after a flurry of late-night briefings from Number 10 in defence of the leader’s job.

The Health Secretary later urged the Prime Minister to sack those who had pointed the finger at him.

Speaking to the PA news agency in Glasgow on Wednesday, First Minister John Swinney said people in Scotland will be “taken aback” by the internal wrangling at the top of the UK Government.

“The Labour Government is riven with internal dissent,” he said.

“When people voted for the Labour Government in the summer of last year, they expected them to come in and clear up the mess of the Tories.

“Now, just over a year later, the Labour Government is riven with internal dissent and that’s because the Labour Government is not delivering for people in this country.”

The First Minister added: “Their performance has been poor as a Government and that’s obviously reflected in Keir Starmer’s leadership.

“What we are facing is a situation where our task in Scotland is made more difficult because we’re got a very poorly performing UK Labour Government who replaced a poorly-performing Tory Government.

“It just goes to show that Government in London is damaging for Scotland and certainly people in Scotland will be feeling profoundly disappointed by the performance of the Labour Party after last night’s events.”