SNP action to tackle child poverty branded ‘not good enough’ by Gordon Brown

The SNP’s record in Government on child poverty is “not good enough”, former prime minister Gordon Brown has said.

Since leaving office in 2010, Mr Brown has campaigned against poverty and has now pit Labour against the SNP in the days before the General Election.

Sir Keir Starmer has been repeatedly criticised – particularly by the SNP – for his refusal to commit to scrapping the two-child benefit cap over financial concerns.

Speaking to The Courier about the issue, Mr Brown turned his fire on the SNP.

“Child poverty is still rising in Scotland,” he said. “Whatever the SNP has done is clearly not enough.

“When we left power in 2010 there was one food bank, now there’s nearly 200. This is what has happened.

“The only way to deal with poverty is to have a Labour government replacing the Conservative Government, working with the Scottish Government and with Fife and other local authorities.

“The SNP cannot say they have solved the problem. They have the power to do so but haven’t solved the problem.”

But the SNP’s candidate for North East Fife, Stefan Hoggan-Radu, said the “single biggest policy pushing children into poverty is the two-child cap”.

He said: “Politics comes down to the choices we make and the SNP would choose to scrap the two-child cap. The question for Gordon Brown is why Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is going to keep it.

“From the creation of the game-changing Scottish child payment, to the rollout of best start grants and expansion of free school meals, SNP action is lifting an estimated 100,000 children out of poverty and supporting families where it matters most – but we are limited in what we can achieve while having to spend money to mitigate Westminster’s neglect.

“Austerity is a choice – and the SNP will continue to reject it under the incoming Labour government, just as we did with the Tories.”