We’ll lift people out of poverty, again - Ian Murray

The gap in achievement between the richest and poorest pupils in Scotland is widening, figures have shown. Picture: John Devlin

The figures within the report were stark and sobering. More than one in five Scots are currently living in poverty, struggling to survive on incomes that fall below what they need. This includes one in every four children in Scotland.

The most poignant phrase in the report was “this is all avoidable”. It is. And the graphs show poverty in all age groups falling sharply during the last Labour government and reversing since. We will have to do it all over again.

Here in our capital we know that affluence and poverty can often live cheek by jowl. Too many children in the UK are growing up in poverty. This is unacceptable, and that’s why the UK Government has set up the Child Poverty Taskforce. Our ambitious strategy will use all available levers to address the problems we face – through work, housing, education, heath, childcare and the social security system.

Many of these areas are devolved to the Scottish Government, which is why as part of this, we’re resetting our relationship with Holyrood and engaging with them on our shared goal – to ensure that every child in Scotland has the opportunity they deserve to have a fair go.

That’s why the laying of today’s Employment Rights Bill is such an important step forward. Stronger rights for working people, higher wages and more security at work is a key structural change we need to see to lift more people out of poverty.

Our plans to make work pay will ban exploitative zero hours contracts, end fire and rehire, introduce basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal, strengthen the collective voice of workers, including through their trade unions and create a single enforcement body to ensure employment rights are upheld.

On pay we will make sure the minimum wage is a genuine living wage by changing the remit of the independent Low Pay Commission so for the first time it accounts for the cost of living and removes the discriminatory age bands, so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage, delivering a pay rise to hundreds of thousands of young people across the UK and 40,000 young people in Scotland.

It’s one of a series of changes that this UK Labour Government has begun to make for communities in Scotland. We have scrapped the Tory Rwanda plan gimmick, created the Child Poverty Taskforce, established the National Wealth Fund, begun work to improve Scottish patients’ access to clinical trials across the UK, started recruiting a Covid Corruption Commissioner to get our money back, secured a recognition deal with Brazil for Scotch whisky worth up to £25 million and launched GB Energy – owned by the public and headquartered in Aberdeen.

The process of change has begun for Scotland, promoting our world class products and services. We want to grow our economy, grab the benefits of green, clean energy, all with the purpose of reducing the unacceptable levels of poverty which scar our communities. Lifting people out of poverty is what Labour governments do, we’ve done it before and we’ll do it again.

Ian Murray is Labour MP for Edinburgh South and Secretary of State for Scotland