Party leader says it would go ahead with such a move if the government won’t, despite former chair inquiry saying a further investigation would delay reform

The Scottish budget will pass through Holyrood comfortably after Anas Sarwar said Labour would either abstain or vote for it, despite John Swinney’s theatrical warnings about its precarious status on Monday.

Swinney annoyed his allies in the Scottish Greens and irritated Labour by claiming yesterday the budget hung in the balance because his minority government had no guarantees other parties would support it. The SNP has 62 MSPs in Holyrood, three short of a majority.

The Scottish Greens, who believe they were in “sincere” talks with Swinney’s ministers about backing the budget, said his rhetoric risked fuelling cynicism about politics by inventing a crisis; Sarwar accused him of “shadow boxing”.

Sarwar told BBC Radio Scotland on Tuesday morning Scottish Labour, which has seen its support in the polls plunge since November, would not obstruct the budget and might even support it:

We, at this current stage, will abstain from this budget, because this budget is going to pass anyway. It has the votes of another political party, at least one of the opposition political parties, so we are not going to vote against this budget.

If they actually put the ending of the two-child benefit cap into this budget and lift it on the first of April, we will vote for the budget.

If [the government] won’t do it, we at Reform will do it. I will have no difficulty in raising the money to do this whatsoever. We’ll appoint independent ex-judges and experts.

I think this would garner such massive public support that anybody asked to appear that didn’t appear would look terrible.

Grooming gangs were only one element of Professor Jay’s inquiry — Rotherham garners a sole mention in her 468-page report and the gangs in Telford are not referenced. A new national inquiry is needed to explore where and how these gangs operated.