Meeting of the Parliament 11 December 2024
It is strange that the Tories talk about unsustainability only when it comes to welfare funding and do not talk about unsustainable tax cuts that would take £1 billion out of public spending. They are very selective in what they describe as unsustainable.
Eradicating child poverty is the Government’s top priority. Indeed, it should be the priority for all parties in the chamber, given that they unanimously supported the statutory child poverty targets. To help to achieve that, we will continue to invest in increasing people’s income from social security and benefits as well as from employment and through reductions in the cost of living. Further, vitally, we will put in place the systems that are necessary to effectively scrap the two-child benefit cap in 2026, supported by £3 million in the budget for that work.
Today’s Labour amendment complains that there is not enough focus on outcomes. I am, therefore, happy to tell the chamber that the outcome of scrapping Labour’s two-child benefit cap will be a further 15,000 children lifted out of poverty. If Labour’s position now is that it is against universal winter fuel payments for pensioners and scrapping the two-child benefit cap, I ask what on earth Labour is for.
This budget protects the social contract that is at the heart of this Government’s approach. It includes free bus travel for young people under 22, as well as for those with eligible disabilities and the over-60s. It includes the universal reinstatement of the pension age winter heating payment, which was a core cross-party ask, with £101 million being invested for the benefit of pensioners across every constituency and region in Scotland.
Today is a bit of a Rubicon for the Conservatives. Morally and electorally, the question for the Tories is simple. Do they really think that they can stop the electoral threat that Reform poses to them through appeasement rather than principle? The answer is yes, they think so. Frankly, it is too late for the Conservative Party.
I move amendment S6M-15792.3, to leave out from “believes” to end and insert:
“welcomes steps in the draft 2025-26 Budget to introduce a universal Winter Heating Payment and create the systems necessary to effectively scrap the two-child benefit cap in 2026, and looks forward to further engagement between the Scottish Government and the parties represented in the Parliament in advance of the next stage in the budget process.”
15:07Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.