Tackling poverty still key priority despite benefit cap staying, says Labour's Ian Murray

Visiting Edinburgh's Social Bite cafe, he said lifting people out of poverty was not just about benefits but also about housing, educational opportunities and fair pay.

Social Bite founder Josh Littlejohn with Scottish Secretary Ian Murray | Scotland Office

He said: "The whole thing about [tackling] poverty is it's what Labour governments do - the Labour government between 2007 and 2010 lifted millions of people out of poverty. It's in our DNA. We will do that again.

"It's a commitment from the Prime Minister and from the government that we want to reduce poverty, it's why we all came into politics, but that has to be done holistically across the whole piece."  

Mr Murray praised the work of social enterprises like Social Bite, which opened its cafe in Rose Street 12 years ago and serves free meals to people experiencing homelessness, food insecurity or poverty, funded by customers "paying ahead".  It also runs a village of pre-fab houses in Granton for homeless people to help them tranisition to permanent accommodation.

‘Social Bite Village was my life-saver’ - former resident tells her story

Mr Murray said the cost of living crisis, Covid and the state of the economy had made homelessness worse and access to opportunities more difficult. "There has never been a greater need for organisations such as Social Bite."

Labour came under fire for not including the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap among its election pledges.

But Mr Murray said: “Nothing went into our manifesto that was not already affordable and we could show where they money was coming from. 

“It's something we want to do, but it's three weeks since we formed the government, we cant do everything on day one.  It's clear public finances are in a difficult place and we didn’t want to promise people, particularly some of the most vulnerable people, something we couldn't deliver.

“Poverty is not about one single element of the Universal Credit welfare system - it’s about housing, educational opportunities, health inequalities, access to digital, making sure people have pay. 

“Most of the people affected by the two child cap - 70 per cent - have one or both parents in work, so there is a fundamental problem with work.  And our new deal for working people s a starting point to try to address that, which will be the most fundamental change in pay and workers' rights in centuries.”

Mr Murray was welcomed to the cafe by Social Bite founder Josh Littlejohn and tried his hand at making a latte after a demonstration by one of the staff.

Mr Littlejohn said customers at the cafe had the option to “pay ahead” for someone to have a coffee or a meal, then there was an hour and a half each morning and another hour and a half each afternoon when people who were homeless or in poverty could come in and have something for free, no questions asked.

“If you’re homeless, normally you’re only able to access a soup van or a church hall or something. Psychologically it’s nice for people to come into a cafe environment along with paying customers.”