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Sirs,

 

Councillor MacCormack (Letters 3rd May) clearly has difficulty reading, let alone understanding, the references I have given to demonstrate that child poverty is endemic in areas where the Labour Party is in control.

 

He wants to know how many local authorities controlled by the Labour Party have the lowest level of child poverty. The table is provided by the "End Child Poverty" organisation's website to which I referred and which he could have read had he taken the trouble.

 

There are no Labour-controlled councils in the 20 best-performing authorities.

 

Letters: Labour “rigged” poverty figures

5 May 2015

The reduction in child poverty of 1.1 million, claimed by the Labour Government and quoted by Cllr MacCormack, was clearly rigged.

 

This much is admitted by by the Government itself (child_poverty_in_

the_uk_report_on_the_2010_target) when it states (page 11): "Of the 1.1 million reduction, 300,000 occurred in the year 2009/10 to 2010/11. This fall was not due to a rise in real incomes for the poorest families, but was driven mainly by the fact that median income fell sharply and benefits remained largely stable in real terms for low income families with children. During this period absolute child poverty did not fall."

 

For child poverty in working families, the Government's report is even more scathing, when it states (page 13) "To halve the number of children in households experiencing in-work poverty the total needed to fall by 800,000 between 1998/99 and 2010/11. In reality it only fell by 300,000 from 1.7 million to 1.4 million."

 

The Labour Government had a truly miserable record in reducing child poverty, the worst record in Western Europe. This much is stated in black and white and no amount of bluster by Cllr MacCormack can dispute it.

 

And where on earth did Cllr MacCormack get the idea that it took the Labour Government "11 years of work" to enact the Child Poverty Act of 2010?

 

With cross-party support, including enthusiastic support by Angus Brendan MacNeil, it took just 181 days to pass through the House of Commons (parliament.uk/bills/2008-09/childpoverty/stages.html).

 

The Bill could have been enacted in 1997. The fact that it took the Labour Party 13 years shows just where ending child poverty lies in Labour's list of priorities.

 

The best possible way of reducing child poverty is for the living wage, as opposed to Labour's pitiful minimum wage, to be paid to their staff by local authorities. Would Cllr MacCormack like to tell us how he voted when the SNP group at the Comhairle called for this to happen at the meeting on 4th December 2014?

 

Dr David Wilson

Press Officer

SNP Lewis branch

12b Tolsta Chaolais

Isle of Lewis