Why SNP can't avoid charges of hypocrisy over two-child benefit cap

The SNP government should be doing more to help children in poverty, writes Christine Jardine

It was all that I could do not to guffaw loudly when SNP leader Stephen Flynn tried to present his party as some sort of protector of benefits and champion of the oppressed at Prime Minister’s Questions. There was a time when the performative bravado over the two-child cap on benefits might have impressed, but not so much now that the Scottish electorate has seen through swagger.

Their hypocrisy has been rumbled. And the only people who seem not to realise it? The SNP. Listening to their recent pronouncements on that cruellest of caps on benefits, the question which leaps to mind is: “Well, why don’t you do something about it in Scotland? You have the power.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It is also not the only example of the hypocrisy. Just ask the Waspi women. For more than seven years now, we have been calling on the SNP and SNP/Green governments to do something to help the women here, and every time the answer is the same. It’s Westminster’s problem. It’s their responsibility.

Yes it is, which is why we Liberal Democrats laid an amendment this week which would have scrapped the two-child cap and have called for the ombudsman’s report on Waspi injustice to be implemented. I am not suggesting for a moment that the Scottish Government don’t take every opportunity to criticise UK Government inaction.

But we might view their protestations as being a little more genuine if they would take some action to try to alleviate the burden. I recognise it might not be possible to find the millions needed to mitigate it completely, but some evidence that they were doing more than shouting might avoid accusations of hypocrisy.

And they shouldn’t ignore their own party’s failings. In its most recent poverty report, the Scottish Government admitted that a quarter of a million children – approximately 24 per cent – are living in poverty here.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Although it describes the figures as “broadly stable” when taken as an average of the three years from 2020-23 it shows them up by 30,000 to 26 per cent for the last year. A long way from the 10 per cent target set for six years from now.

Nevertheless the SNP will say they are better than figures for the rest of the UK. But is that really enough?  Surely the general election results have proven that the Scottish public wants more than to be grateful their lot is not as bad as others?

As someone whose party has only now regained its national prominence a decade after being punished by voters disappointed in our actions, I would warn the SNP against assuming more of the same will provide a route to recovery for them.

In the wake of our 2015 election defeat, we recognised we would have to win back public confidence. We have worked hard for those communities which maintained their faith in us, stood up for them in parliament and fought the fights that were important to them.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It is not enough to stand up and shout that everyone else wrong. You have to show how you would do it differently. Sadly for the SNP, it seems that swagger and bravado is all they know, and it may be too late to change.

Christine Jardine is Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.

Dare to be Honest
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice