The SNP vows to make poverty history – again

There is a weary inevitability about Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, promising to ‘eradicate child poverty’ as his ‘single most important objective’. We’ve been here before. Both Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon promised to do exactly the same. Indeed, those of us with long memories recall the Scottish Labour minister, Wendy Alexander, vowing in 1999 at the dawn of devolution that ‘the Scottish parliament will abolish child poverty’. It hasn’t: exactly the same proportion of children, a quarter, are in poverty today as was the case 25 years ago.

So will Swinney succeed where others have failed? The Child Poverty Action Group, along with a bewildering network of poverty campaigners, say there is an obvious solution. If Swinney is serious, he must increase the Scottish Child Payment – made for every child in households which claim certain benefits or tax credits – to £40 per week. Mind