In Parliament

I shared the experience of families the Glasgow North West Citizens Advice Team have assisted who were subject to the UK two-child cap.

The cap is designed so that struggling families do not get the support they need.

The SNP are taking action to end the impact in Scotland but its appalling UK Labour wont axe the cap.

Full text of the speech

I thought that an appropriate contribution for me to make in this afternoon’s debate on tackling child poverty through Scotland’s budget was to bring to the Parliament, as I have done before, the lived experience of the direct detrimental impact of the UK Government’s two-child benefit cap, which our SNP Government’s budget—which will come before us in just a few weeks’ time—will take action to finally begin to end. It will transform the real-life experience of many young people and lift 15,000 of them out of poverty. The difference on this occasion is that I no longer speak of the Conservatives’ two-child cap; I speak, unfortunately, of the Labour Party’s two-child cap.

In bringing such lived experience to the Parliament this afternoon, I once again thank Glasgow North West Citizens Advice Bureau, which has captured examples of lived experience and has advocated strongly for many of the Maryhill and Springburn constituents I am privileged to represent.

For instance, Glasgow North West CAB supported a woman who, when she separated from her husband, found herself and her children reliant on universal credit. Imagine discovering, on the breakdown of your marriage, when you need support the most, that the UK Government takes the view that only two of your four children will be supported financially. To put it bluntly, the family will deliberately not be given enough money to live on.

In another example, a father whom Glasgow North West CAB supported had to give up work in a well-paid job in the most tragic of circumstances. The dad had to somehow support four children aged between three and 12 when, sadly, their mum died. As a father, I can only imagine having to support children in such tragic and distressing circumstances. Finding himself in financial difficulty, the dad was supported to make a claim for universal credit. Imagine a UK Government that, in essence, tells a grieving dad that it will not offer adequate support for two of his children. Do those children not count? Do they not have needs and rights?

A UK welfare system that financially penalises a child when they lose their mum is simply repugnant. Likewise, a UK system that will not support children who need support following a marital breakdown is surely inhumane.

Either way, it is now a UK Labour system that is simply not fit for purpose. Most disturbingly of all, it is not fit for purpose by design and not by accident.

I am aware that there is a struggle in the Scottish Parliament Labour group about whether to support SNP plans to mitigate UK Labour’s immoral two-child cap. Several Labour members will agree with me—I know that they will. However, it would be better if, instead of angsting over whether to do the right thing, Scottish Labour stood up to the UK Labour Government and supported the SNP here, in Holyrood.

In the time that I have left to speak, I will talk about a couple of other matters in the budget. I am proud of the SNP’s position on free school meals. Before I was elected to the Scottish Parliament, I was part of the campaign to change SNP policy to bring in universal free school meals. I wish that we had gone quicker and gone further. I say to the First Minister that I am looking forward to a re-elected SNP Scottish Government in 2026, and I see universal free school meals being provided in secondary schools as well as in primary schools.

I want there to be a breakfast club culture in schools across Scotland, not just to alleviate child poverty but for the additional benefits that breakfast clubs give young people.

I know that my time is up, so I will leave it at that.