Mhairi Black
Main Page: Mhairi Black (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire South)Department Debates - View all Mhairi Black's debates with the Department for Education
(3 years, 6 months ago)
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Mhairi Black (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (SNP) [V]
This year alone, Renfrewshire food bank has provided more than 9,000 food parcels. Of those parcels, 2,500 went to children. According to the Government’s own statistics, the number of children in my constituency living in poverty is 2,598. I mention that because, comparing the Government’s figure with the number of food parcels that the food bank provided to children, we see a difference of only eight, yet this Government maintain with a straight face that there is no link between their policies and the rise in food bank dependency. There is clear uptake by people who never expected to be dependent on its services during the pandemic, particularly those who have been left out of any Government support.
The reality is that poverty can pounce on anyone at any time. Once it seeps into someone’s life, the ramifications are painful, debilitating and long-lasting, both physically and mentally. Thanks to our Scottish Parliament, we are seeing some relief in Scotland, where we already have free school meals and are now seeing that extended to all children in Scotland. The difference in direction of our Governments could not be starker: while the Scottish Government set a target to eradicate child poverty in statute, the UK Government have scrapped targets altogether.
Since I was elected, we have had 29 debates on child poverty. This is the 30th. I am tired of this Government’s indifference to the consequences of their actions. I am tired of the Scottish Government having to spend millions protecting people from policies that they did not vote for. I am tired of local unpaid volunteers having to plug the holes gouged out by this Government. But I am still nowhere near as tired as the children living in poverty, because, most of all, poverty is exhausting.
In my maiden speech, I said:
“Food banks are not part of the welfare state—they are a symbol that the welfare state is failing.—[Official Report, 14 July 2015; Vol. 598, c. 775.]
Six years on, what has changed? The fact that this Government knowingly force people to be dependent on the generosity of strangers to literally eat is barbaric. We cannot punish people out of poverty; we have to support and empower them. People in poverty are not the problem; the Government who ignore them are. And if this Government still will not act after 30 debates, then it is time they moved aside for those of us who will.