SNP accuse Labour of failing to deliver a £150million "war chest" to fight child poverty in Scotland

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The SNP has challenged the Labour to hand over a promised £150million “war chest” to tackle child poverty.

During the election campaign Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said his department was to be given new spending powers to administer funds to help “unlock opportunities especially in deprived communities”.

It had been hoped Rachel Reeves would allocate money in last week’s budget to allow a “turbo-charged” UK Government Scotland Office to bypass the Scottish Government and plough levelling up money into projects directly with councils.

SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn has now demanded to know when the money will be delivered.

He said: “The lack of any action on child poverty was a glaring omission from the UK budget.

“It will mean thousands of Scottish children will be pushed into poverty in the months ahead - as a result of punitive Labour Party welfare cuts like the two child limit, bedroom tax and benefit cap.

“During the election, voters were promised the Labour Party would scrap the two child cap and deliver a £150million ‘war chest’ of extra funding to tackle poverty in Scotland but both of those promises have now been broken - and, as a result, more Scottish kids will languish in poverty.

“Ian Murray’s missing millions adds insult to injury. The Scottish Secretary must explain why he made a promise to voters he’s completely failed to deliver - and join SNP calls for the Labour government to bring forward an emergency package of funding to tackle poverty.

“That means handing the missing £150million over to the Scottish Government, scrapping the two child benefit cap, abolishing the bedroom tax, and matching the SNP’s Scottish Child Payment UK-wide by raising the child element of Universal Credit by £26.70 a week.

“To put it in perspective, the missing £150million is the equivalent money needed to reverse the Labour government’s Winter Fuel Payment cuts in Scotland - and it could also be used to boost child poverty funds like the Scottish Child Payment.

“With every day the Labour government fails to act, more children fall into poverty. It’s not good enough to kick the issue into the long-grass - or expect the Scottish Parliament to clean up Westminster’s mess. The UK government must act now.”

In September Murray retracted claims a journalist “made up” the £150million “war chest” figure.

The MP backtracked after appearing to give the impression the figure - which first appeared in the Sunday Mail’s sister paper the Daily Record - had been invented.

Murray told the BBC on Sunday: “I don’t have a £150million war chest, that was a front page newspaper article that everyone seems to have run with, it was a journalist that made up that figure, not me.”

But when later asked if he was suggesting a journalist had made up the £150million, he said: “No.”

He added: “The point I was trying to make was we don’t have any money yet, in the sense of the Scotland Office being a spending department.

“The figures that are in the public domain were calculated using previous structural funds money which was in the manifesto.” He said the £150million figure was “not made up”.

A UK Government source said: “Labour’s budget has handed the Scottish Government an extra £1.5bn this year, ten times the figure they are now demanding. Next year they will get an extra £3.4bn. It’s the biggest budget settlement in the history of devolution. The SNP have run out excuses, they have the money and now need to urgently fix Scotland’s public services.

“In addition to the block grant, we have confirmed £1.4bn of direct UK Government investment in local growth projects, helping to regenerate our towns and cities, support local community groups, and help businesses succeed.“

“This week’s budget also saw the minimum wage increased and reforms to universal credit, leaving some families more than £420 better off. Our child poverty task force will be working to deliver lasting reductions in child poverty across the whole UK.”

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