Scotland's economy secretary defends SNP failure to fully mitigate Westminster two-child benefit cap

Neil Gray said Holyrood cannot always mitigate Westminster failures as the row rumbles on

Holyrood cannot be expected to mitigate “failures” of Westminster governments, Scotland’s economy secretary has said, as a row over the two-child cap on benefits continues to rumble.

Sir Keir Starmer has been heavily criticised by the SNP and those within Scottish Labour for his failure to commit to the removal of the so-called ‘rape clause’ should UK Labour win the next general election.

Under existing rules, Universal Credit or child tax credit can only be claimed for the first two children, with an exception granted if the applicant can prove a third child was conceived non-consensually

Neil Gray (centre) spoke to reporters at a visit to Allied Vehicles in Glasgow.

The opposition leader, who looks set to be the next prime minister, said his party couldn’t commit to removing the cap as they were unable to make “un-costed spending commitments”.

Following the backlash from nationalists in Scotland, Labour figures have repeatedly pointed to the ability of the Scottish Government to fully mitigate the impact of the cap themselves and have asked why the Government has not done so.

Neil Gray, the Cabinet secretary for the economy, branded the suggestion “incredible” and said it was not for Holyrood to be mitigating Westminster policies.

He told The Scotsman: “I find it incredible that the Labour Party that tells us on the independence front that people with social requirements in Doncaster have exactly the same as those in Dundee would then try and tell us that we need to mitigate against Westminster failings, including what we appear to see now, which would be a UK Labour government’s failings to be able to respond effectively to the social needs of our citizens.

"We have, in Social Security Scotland, the benefits that we have come forward with and created. We have ensured that there is no two-child limit, there is no rape clause within the work that we do and we’ll continue to press forward in that vein.

"But it is for the Westminster government. We cannot continue to always be the ones that mitigate against the failures of a Westminster government.”

Mr Gray was visiting Allied Vehicles in Possilpark, Glasgow, to announce a £1.3 million grant from Scottish Enterprise. The grant will enable the company to hire an additional 35 roles as part of a drive to pioneer new vehicle conversion processes to make hybrid and electric vehicles wheelchair accessible.

Stating that tackling inequality was a “priority” for the Scottish Government, Mr Gray called on Labour to be “braver”. He said it was “incumbent” on internal opponents, such as MSP Monica Lennon, to “ensure that they are much braver than what we’ve seen thus far”.

Pressed on why the government has not done more and whether the SNP is washing its hands of responsibility, Mr Gray pointed at the Scottish Child Payment and the “hundreds of millions” spent on mitigating Westminster policies.

He said: “We have a fixed budget, and we are already making investments across all elements of government to ensure that we are responding. This is a reserved benefit, this is a reserved policy area. It cannot always be for the Scottish Government that we have to make up for the failings of Westminster policy.

"But if that is where they are, if that’s where the Labour party is, then the extension of that logic is to say ‘give us the full powers over social security, give us the full powers over tax, ideally allow us the chance to have the people of Scotland have their say over where the powers should really lie with an independence referendum’.

“Then we could actually make sure we are responding in the full manner that the powers of independence would allow us to do.”

Humza Yousaf said on Wednesday he was willing to “get round the table and have that discussion” about raising taxes to pay for a full mitigation of the two-child cap.

The First Minister was responding to comments from Philip Whyte, director of the Institute for Public Policy Research in Scotland, who said Holyrood had a “moral responsibility” to intervene after Labour’s failure to commit to ending the cap.

A new tax band for those earning between around £75,000 and £125,000 is under discussion as part of the Scottish Government’s tax advisory group, due to report next year. This new band could be used to fund any move to cancel out the effects of the two-child cap in Scotland.