Tackling child poverty is fundamental to the work of this Labour Government. In December, we published our ambitious and comprehensive UK-wide child poverty strategy. It sets out the steps we are taking to reduce child poverty in the short term, as well as putting in place the building blocks we need to create long-term change across the United Kingdom. On its own, our decision to lift the two-child cap, which came into effect just last week, will benefit 95,000 children in Scotland.
Does the Secretary of State agree that the Scottish National party has failed Scotland’s children over the past two decades, leaving thousands in poverty, including one in four in my constituency, and that it is only Labour that will prioritise our children, as we have shown by lifting the two-child cap, which is now benefiting over 13,000 children in Lanarkshire?
First, on the conduct of the Government: the Conservatives in government pushed kids into poverty; Labour in government lifts kids out of poverty. We would have hoped for a better approach from the Scottish Government, but the fact is that there are 10,000 kids in Scotland without a home to call their own. At the same time, the challenge that was set by the previous First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, was to close the educational attainment gap in Scotland—of course, education, along with employment, is the best route out of poverty—but that gap has got wider rather than narrower. What a damning indictment of the Scottish Government.
Obviously I do not agree with the Secretary of State’s analysis, but I think we can agree that child poverty and the other challenges that face real people in Scotland should be the focus of this Scottish Parliament election campaign, and not independence, for which, incredibly, the Reform UK candidate in Dumfriesshire voted. Does the Secretary of State agree that anybody in Scotland who does not want to see Scotland spend five more years in a constitutional cul-de-sac should use their vote wisely to stop an SNP majority?
It is always important for the electorate to use their votes wisely, but the fact is that there are two parties that are deeply threatened by Scottish Labour’s emergence as the credible alternative to the SNP. They are, on the one hand, the Scottish National party and, on the other hand, Reform. If we think about it, their interests are completely aligned, in talking Reform up and talking Scottish Labour down. I certainly hope that people act wisely and make sure that this Scottish election is about Scotland.