Tories must come clean on benefit freeze

Ian Murray MP 2Labour’s Shadow Scottish Secretary, Ian Murray MP, calls on the Scotland Office to conduct a full assessment of how Scottish families will be affected by changes to tax credits and working age benefits.

 

David Mundell’s pretence that yesterday’s budget was anything less than an ideological attempt to dismantle the essential support given to working families is shameful. It’s time for the Tory government to come clean.

I’ve written to the Secretary of State today.

Rt. Hon. David Mundell MP
Secretary of State for Scotland
Scotland Office
Dover House
London
 
9th July 2015
 
Dear David
 
The Budget announced by the Chancellor yesterday contained a raft of measures that will affect Scotland.
 
While there are some that Labour welcomes – including the additional support for the oil and gas industry and the action to tackle tax avoidance – the impact of the proposed freeze in working age benefits, including tax credits, represents a devastating blow for families across Scotland.
 
Hundreds of thousands of families in Scotland rely on tax credits. Despite changes to the minimum wage, the Resolution Foundation has estimated that a low earning dual-earner couple with two children could be more than £800 a year worse off under your Government’s plans.
 
The full extent of the effect of the Government’s proposals must be made public. As such, as a matter of urgency, the Scotland Office should publish a full assessment of how many families in Scotland will lose out, and by how much, because of the decision to freeze working age benefits, particularly tax credits.
 
Further, it is now more important than ever that the powers over welfare promised in the Smith Commission are passed, in full, to the Scottish Parliament. The Government’s continued insistence to retain the veto power over welfare changes and the reservation of housing benefit must be addressed in amendments to the Scotland Bill. These are issues I pressed you on during the committee stage of the Scotland Bill in the House of Commons. Yesterday’s budget demonstrates even more strongly the case I made.
 
I look forward to your reply.
 
Yours sincerely,

 
Ian Murray MP

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6 thoughts on “Tories must come clean on benefit freeze

  1. Labour must come clean on why they decided to get onto the same platform as the Conservative Tories to keep Scotland subjugated beneath a Parliament that allows undemocratically elected Tories Governments into power over Scotland.

  2. Mr. Murray , where do you really stand regarding Trident?

  3. Isn’t this why Labour campaigned with the Tories for a No vote? Now the very same Labour politicians who told us that only the Union could save the our welfare system are now weeping crocodile tears about yesterday’s budget.
    It is astonishing that those Labour MPs who supported Tory cuts by voting for the Charter for Budget Responsibility are now bleating about the horrible consequences of Austerity. Their hypocrisy is breathtaking! No doubt they’ll be telling us next that it’s all the SNP’s fault!

    1. The No vote (by over 2 million Scots) was not a vote for the Tories, no. And the vote for the Charter for Budget Responsibility was not a vote for Tory cuts either.

      I tell you what is the SNP’s fault – the fact that those two lies you just told have such currency in Scotland. Entirely the fault of the SNP’s dishonest campaigns.

  4. Dishonestly complaining about dishonesty again Duncan. I cant make up my mind if you are truly delusional thus giving you the benefit of the doubt or you are simply a compulsive impulsive bare faced liar.
    The No vote was clearly a vote for Tories. It was a vote to keep the perpetually Tory run Tory Institutionalised Westminster Parliament governing Scotland.
    We now have yet another Tory Government running Scotland as a direct result of Westminster rule. Another Tory Government we didn’t vote for.
    You’re credibility online is shit! That’s not an insult per se its a simple statement of fact.

  5. Duncan, the No vote, championed by Labour in Scotland as the way to protect Scotland’s poor and vulnerable, has delivered yet another savage, benefit-cutting, far-right Tory Government. Thanks for that, Labour. Whatever happened to all that pooling and sharing?
    As for the Charter for Budget Responsibility, it is clear to anyone reading it that Labour signed up to a document which was all about institutionalising Tory austerity cuts. Those who doubt me should read Labour MP Dianne Abbott’s comments after she and the small group of Labour rebel MPs defied their whips and voted with the SNP to reject it.
    Better still, check out last night’s Question Time on BBC i-player where, about 16.30 in, this exchange takes place:
    Anna Soubry: You signed up for £30 billion of cuts. Where would you have made the cuts if you’d been elected?
    Chuka Umunna: I’ve already mentioned three different areas…..
    Showing right-wing voters in the south of England that Labour is prepared to match the Tories on Austerity is now an integral part of its long-term strategy. Just look at the terms of debate in its leadership battle.
    Facts are chiels that winna ding, Duncan. Dr Goebbels would have been proud of your continuous dissembling but Keir Hardie will be turning in his grave.

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