BORIS Johnson has been warned he must rebuild the welfare system after years of “systemic destruction” by the Tories to prevent child poverty rates soaring further and causing damage for generations to come.

SNP work and pensions secretary Neil Gray MP has written to the Prime Minister calling for a series of reforms, including increasing benefits and scrapping benefit caps, the bedroom tax and the sanctions regime.

He accused the Tories of “ignoring point blank” evidence that child poverty is on the rise in the UK.

In his letter Gray states: “We know that poverty is not inevitable and I hope we can agree that the UK Government has a responsibility to ensure that millions of children in poverty are not ignored and to protect families from being pushed into further hardship.”

READ MORE: Alison Anderson: Tories forced to use ‘shock and awe’ to make Brexit palatable

Last week at Prime Minister’s Questions, Johnson claimed both absolute and relative poverty had declined under the Conservative Government.

However, a recent report by the Social Mobility Commission warned of “mounting evidence” that welfare changes over the past decade have put many more children into poverty, with the Covid crisis likely to have a further impact.

Another analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Save the Children also found that seven in 10 families who are claiming Universal Credit or Child Tax Credit have been forced to cut back on essentials and six in 10 have had to borrow money since the start of the pandemic.

Responding to that report, the UK Government said it understood the challenges many are facing and has injected £6.5 billion into the welfare system. Gray wants UK ministers to introduce reforms including having Universal Credit advance payments as non-repayable grants instead of loans and uplifting the child element of Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit by £20 per week – as called for by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Save the Children.

READ MORE: Robin McAlpine: Why an independent Scotland is the only route

He said an emergency basic payment should also be introduced to help those families struggling during the current crisis.

Gray said: “After a decade of brutal austerity cuts – which have served only to exacerbate poverty – and a global pandemic, it is now more critical than ever that the UK Government starts taking child poverty seriously and rebuilds the social security net it spent years systematically destroying. If it will not, poverty rates will continue to soar and we will see long-term lasting damage for generations to come.

“Loss of income and rising debt increases anxiety for parents and growing up in poverty has severe educational, health and developmental consequences for children – but this doesn’t need to be the case. I am urging the Tories to heed our calls to rebuild the welfare system so that everyone in the UK has a safety net.”