Voting against end to benefits cap is not ‘putting people first’

As a lifelong trade union activist, I was touched by his mention of the influence his grandfather, also a trade union activist, had on his life. He and Martin’s grandmother worked hard to lift their family out of poverty and to allow Martin to attend St Aloysius’ College and Oxford University.

My father died when I was 13 and my mother also worked hard to make sure her four sons were able to go through further and higher education.

During his campaign Martin spoke about, if elected, working to give all children the same life chances he had.

After his election he wrote in the Greenock Telegraph that: “It’s been a busy week but I’m putting people first.”

He also spoke about the influence former Inverclyde MP David Cairns had on his life. All of these things made it seem to us that he would be fighting for everyone in Inverclyde.

However, after what happened in the British Parliament last Tuesday, I am not so sure about which people Martin is putting first. By voting against the SNP’s amendment to the King’s Speech, which would have ended the two-child benefits cap, he condemned children in Inverclyde and across Britain to further poverty and suffering.

This from a man who spoke about his family being lifted out of poverty, a man who still lives in Inverclyde – one of the most deprived areas of Scotland – and a man who said he was heavily influenced by David Cairns.

I knew David well both as a priest and as an MP, and he would have been one of the first people to go through the lobby of the British Parliament to vote to support the amendment.

David never forgot where he came from and always served ALL of the people of Inverclyde, especially those who were struggling financially through no fault of their own. Martin McCluskey had the chance to do the same but chose not to.

He also went against the wishes of many trade unions, and the children’s charities which have said that removing the cap would be the most cost-effective way of lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty.

During the General Election campaign, Labour in Scotland told us they were opposed to the cap and that their elected MPs would vote to remove it. Angela Rayner said the two-child cap was abhorrent.

Given that all of the Scottish Labour MPs except for one voted to keep the cap, were they, and Angela Rayner, lying to us then or now? Whichever is true, the people of Inverclyde, and the rest of Scotland, need to be aware of this.

When challenged about the way they voted, Scottish Labour MPs said fiscal rules could not be broken and there wasn’t enough money in the kitty to end the cap. They also said the Scottish Government should be finding money to mitigate the effect of what is now the Labour Party’s policy to keep the cap.

So while the British government has to be fiscally prudent, Labour expect the Scottish Government to break their fiscal rules!

When Martin won his seat, people said to me that, as an SNP activist, I must be hugely disappointed. I told them that of course I was but, just as I did with our previous Labour MPs, David Cairns and Iain McKenzie, I was prepared to see if he would live up to his promises to the people of Inverclyde.

Given what has happened so far I am not filled with confidence that Martin is going to put people before his parliamentary career.

Perhaps he can redeem himself by fully supporting the compensation claims of the Waspi women and not simply toe the party line if Labour try to water things down. Only time will tell.

Tom Tracey

Greenock