SCOTTISH and Welsh nationalist party leaders reached out to disillusioned Labour voters yesterday after the Welfare Bill left the party in disarray, writes Luke James.

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood said the decision by Labour’s front bench to abstain on the Tories’ Work and Welfare Bill showed the party was more “Blair and Kendall” than “Benn or Bevan.”

She said: “People will today be asking what is the point of Labour.

“As they despair, I ask them to consider the positive part they can play in Plaid Cymru, the only party that is now a true alternative to Tory cuts and Tory attacks.”

SNP MP Pete Wishart mocked Labour MPs after Monday’s vote, suggesting to the Commons that his party should move into the official opposition benches.

And SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday that Scots would be “disgusted” by Labour’s decision, while adding that she was “sadly not” surprised.

“Last night just proves that Labour has lost any sense of purpose and it will be the SNP who increasingly will form the real opposition in the House of Commons,” she said.