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Seòmar agus comataidhean

UK Government Austerity

  • Submitted by: Stuart McMillan, Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party.
  • Date lodged: Monday, 02 September 2024
  • Motion reference: S6M-14132
  • Current status: Has not yet achieved cross-party support

That the Parliament regrets what it sees as the continuation of austerity under the new UK Labour administration, following what it considers to be 14 years of austerity foisted on Scotland by a Conservative administration that it did not vote for; understands that this is despite Scottish Labour’s party leader, Anas Sarwar, stating in a television debate during the UK General Election campaign that "there will be no austerity under a Labour government"; believes that the decisions announced so far by Sir Keir Starmer’s administration indicate that there could be almost 20 years of austerity in the UK; rejects the UK Government’s decision to end the Winter Fuel Payment weeks before it is devolved, reportedly reducing funding by almost 90%; considers that this announcement follows Labour MPs recently voting against a Scottish National Party (SNP) motion in the UK Parliament to abolish the two-child benefit cap, which, it understands, will affect an additional 250,000 children across the UK in the next year, rising to half a million by 2029; further considers that many child poverty campaigners have said that families affected by the two-child cap may lose up to £3,500 a year in benefit support for each subsequent child, which will ultimately lead to increased child poverty in larger families; worries that the early signals from the new Labour administration indicate, it believes, that it will follow many of the Conservatives' policies that the Labour Party railed against for over a decade, instead of taking bold action to address years of the public purse being shut; is concerned that thousands of pensioners across Inverclyde, which has reportedly seen its working age population shrink and its over-75 population grow by 21.2% between 2001 and 2021, will be subject to further pressure on their finances at a time when the Scottish Government, it believes, has increased uncertainty about its funding from the UK Government and finds itself in a weakened position to continue to mitigate the worst effects of what it sees as the Westminster austerity agenda; notes the calls for the new Scottish Labour MPs and the leader of Scottish Labour to put Scotland first and call out any continuation of austerity, which, it believes, will only hold Scotland back, and believes that the only way for Scotland to control its own affairs once and for all is to take the step that 62 other countries have taken and gain independence from the UK, noting that none of these nations have ever subsequently relinquished their independence.


Supported by: Karen Adam, Clare Adamson, Colin Beattie, Stephanie Callaghan, Bob Doris, Jackie Dunbar, Annabelle Ewing, Emma Harper, Bill Kidd, Gordon MacDonald, Fulton MacGregor, John Mason, Audrey Nicoll, David Torrance