Labour has no solution to austerity, child poverty and Brexit madness - Angus Robertson

Keir Starmer’s party is set to implement £18 billion worth of cuts to the UK’s public services which are already at their breaking point.

The consequential knock-on by this slashing of public provision at a UK level would mean a £1.45 billion cut to Scotland’s budget is on the way. This would be the equivalent to NHS Scotland losing one in six members of staff - including porters, midwives, nurses, doctors, and paramedics.

Or to give another comparison, a £1.45 billion cut would be the equivalent cost of providing free university tuition, free bus travel for all who are currently entitled to it, the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), the Baby Box, and the range of interventions that mitigate against UK Government welfare cuts and underfunding, such as the bedroom tax. This is totally and unequivocally unacceptable.

The independent think tank The Nuffield Trust warned that the Labour Party’s spending plans “would represent a lower level of funding increase than the period of ‘austerity’ between 2010-11 and 2014-15. This would be an unprecedented slowdown in NHS finances […] it would make the next few years the tightest period of funding in NHS history. They will struggle to be able to pay the existing staff, let alone the additional staff set out in the workforce plan. It’s completely unrealistic.”

What’s more, the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)—one of the UK’s most respected economic think tanks—has said Labour cuts would mean 670,000 more children will be hit by the two-child benefit cap by the end of the next Parliament.

The IFS research shows 250,000 children will be hit by the policy over the next year alone. Yet, the Labour Party has repeatedly failed to commit to abolishing the policy, including in its manifesto - meaning it will push thousands of children into poverty. The research shows that when fully rolled out, the policy will affect one in five children, costing families an average of £4,300 a year, or 10% of their income. Among the poorest fifth of households, 38% will be affected.

Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said child poverty in the UK is “a national disgrace and the biggest driver of it is the two-child limit. Any government serious about making things better for the next generation will have to scrap the two-child limit and do so quickly.”

On top of this, with their continued commitment to Brexit, neither the Labour Party nor Conservatives have any claim of fiscal responsibility or desire to help UK finances get back on track, as re-joining the EU would help to do.

This prevents them from being able to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, too.

John Swinney and the SNP have a vision to tackle poverty, help with the cost-of-living crisis, and put Scotland on course to re-joining the EU. Our aims lie in stark contrast to Keir Starmer’s or Rishi Sunak’s.

The facts are clear. Whoever runs the UK Government after the general election on the 4th of July they will continue the austerity agenda.

Only SNP MPs will go to Westminster to oppose austerity, tackle the cost-of-living crisis, stand up for Scotland and to end the Brexit madness.