RICHARD Leonard’s commitment to end zero-hours contracts in Scotland was ridiculed by Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood, who pointed out that the Labour government in Wales had voted against similar proposals no fewer than seven times.

The stooshie between the two opposition leaders came after Scottish Labour tweeted on Boxing Day that, “over a quarter of a million Scots are trapped in insecure work. That’s why we’ll call time on zero-hours contracts”.

Wood replied: “Can we expect the same in #Wales? Oh no, wait, the Labour Government here has voted against @Plaid_Cymru proposals on zero hours contracts no less than SEVEN times. #EndZeroHoursContracts”

Despite a UK-wide vow at the last two General Elections to outlaw the contracts entirely, Labour have not supported Plaid attempts to scupper zero-hours contracts, including in two votes this year.

Welsh ministers have promised to offer public sector staff reviews if they are on contracts without guaranteed hours but work regular shifts, and have pledged to limit their use within the Welsh government.

Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones has previously said there is a “lack of clarity” over whether the Assembly would even have the power to ban zero-hours contracts.

Some SNP politicians pointed out that the problem for Leonard and Jones moaning about Westminster control is that during the Smith Commission process on more powers coming to Holyrood, Labour had opposed the devolution of employment law.

In their submission to the commission, Labour said financial and economic matters including employment law should remain reserved to Westminster, as they were “key to the maintenance of the Union”.

SNP MSP Sandra White said: “Exploitative zero-hours contracts are utterly toxic – they are unstable and often leave people in desperate situations where they don’t know how much they will be earning week to week. It is excellent to see that the number of people relying on these contracts has fallen – 7000 fewer people on zero-hours contracts is good news for everyone.

“We want the power to do more, but devolution of powers over employment law were blocked during the Smith Commission with Labour’s backing. It is outright hypocrisy for Labour to pretend they’d tackle zero-hours contracts when they left the power to take action in the hands of the Tories.”

The figures from the Scottish Parliament information centre, released on Christmas Eve showed the number of people on these zero-hours contracts had fallen from 78,000 to 71,000 between 2016 and 2017.

A further 43,000 were in insecure temporary work.

The Holyrood researchers estimate some 160,000 workers in Scotland are in low-paid self-employment.

The research, commissioned by Labour, was based on the Office for National Statistics April-June labour force survey. At the time, Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s economy spokeswoman said: “Too many jobs in Scotland are insecure, without guaranteed hours or income.

“That insecurity then flows through our economy holding it back – from the stress it puts on working people, to the pressure it puts on family finances.

“People can’t plan ahead if they don’t know what next month’s pay cheque will be – if it turns up at all.”

She added: “The next Labour government will ban zero-hours contracts, and we will press the SNP to stop handing taxpayer money, in the form of public contracts and grants, to companies who use them.

“But there is a wider issue here around the quality of job”.