THE SNP have set out their demands for next Wednesday’s budget, with calls for more money for the NHS, pensioners and an end to the rape clause.
Yesterday Rishi Sunak insisted that next week’s budget will “lay the foundations for a decade of growth” despite delaying plans for a £100 billion National Infrastructure Strategy.
The 30-year plan, meant to contain projections for transport, local growth and digital infrastructure, was due to be published next Wednesday. The postponement follows the recent High Court ruling over Heathrow, which found expansion plans had failed to adequately account for policies on climate change.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “It is vital that we give these decisions the proper time and care they deserve. The national infrastructure plan will follow in the coming months and government officials are working on it as a priority.”
Meanwhile, the SNP’s Philippa Whitford has called for more funding for the NHS in England and Wales.
She said that if the UK Government matched Scottish NHS per capita funding, then “through Barnett consequentials, this would allow the Scottish Government to increase Health and Social Care funding in Scotland by over £4 billion by the end of this UK parliament.”
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Whitford added: “This is money that could be used to face the challenges of the current Covid-19 outbreak as well as enabling our NHS and social care services to develop so as to serve our ageing population in the future.”
Her colleague Amy Callaghan urged the Chancellor to do more for pensioners, including “delivering justice for WASPI women, taking urgent action on the UK’s woefully low state pension and committing to fully fund the over-75s’ TV licence.”
While Alison Thewliss urged Sunak to repeal the two-child policy which restricts entitlement to benefits to two children per family.
The Glasgow Central MP said:“The UK government has tried time and again to justify this cruel and sinister policy, and it has failed each and every time.
“The Tories have gone to great lengths to tell us that it helps to level-up the benefits system, and that people should not rely solely on taxpayers’ money to support families. Yet, their own data revealed recently that 59% of households impacted by the two-child limit had at least one adult in work – which flies in the face of their stated objective.
“The continued damage that this policy will inflict on families and communities across the UK is frightening, with CPAG estimating that ending the two-child limit would mean 300,000 fewer children in poverty by 2023/24, and would prevent one million children being pushed even deeper into poverty.”
Next Wednesday will see the first Westminster budget since October 2018. There should have been one last November but it was postponed because of the General Election.
Sunak has had just four weeks to get the spending plans prepared following the shock resignation of his predecessor Sajid Javid.
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