Willie Rennie
Scottish Liberal Democrats · Scotland
“Daniel Johnson’s remarks were powerful, and he identified an issue that is sometimes uncomfortable and that we need to address. The country faces difficult issues, and we do ourselves no favours by ignoring those issues. Some of the points that Daniel Johnson made about immigration were right, and we need to discuss them.”
“Again, Daniel Johnson highlighted that when he talked about comments on “fighting- age men”, “strangers” and “two-tier policing”. We know what those terms mean and what they are appealing to. Thomas Kerr: Will the member take an intervention? Willie Rennie: Yes, I will take an intervention from Mr Charmer himself.”
“I understand that a German company will now use the Dalzell plant as a jobbing mill, importing 4,000 tonnes of slab from a foreign supplier outside the UK instead of purchasing that slab from Scunthorpe. All that raises serious questions about an important part of the steel industry in Scotland.”
“It is important for the UK Government that there is learning from the process and that the circumstances of our Parliament—for example, when we re-form following an election—are not an afterthought in relation to the UK Government’s formulation of its approach to legislation and when it decides to introduce it.”
“So far, the Scottish Government has not been formally asked to provide support, but I advise the member and the chamber that the issue was part of my discussions with the UK Government minister yesterday. The legislation extends to Scotland, and the steel undertaking would capture the site.”
“Will that be repaid, and at what point? When will we have a proper functioning mill—the only wide-plate mill in the United Kingdom—at Dalzell? When will it have a constructive relationship with the Scunthorpe plant? All those issues should be at the front of the Government’s mind, but, as usual, it is not paying attention.”
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“The First Minister: I agree entirely with Mr Rennie’s point that the Scottish child payment contributes, but it is not the whole story. The whole story has to be about the alignment of Government policy to support those objectives. That is why one of the other priorities in the Government’s budget has been to put in place a real-terms increase in the local government core grant to enable local authorities to strengthen the services upon which many of the individuals that Mr Rennie refers to would depend to help them on their journey out of poverty, in addition to the other measures that I mentioned in my speech. I give him that reassurance that that point is accepted and is at the heart of the Government’s approach to the child poverty strategy. Willie Rennie: I am grateful to the First Minister for that.”
“However, if that impact is going to last and it is not just a sticking plaster, we have to deal with the root causes. To be fair, the First Minister set out in his speech that we need to address a much wider range of issues, which I will come to in a second. However, my fear is that sometimes in this Parliament we celebrate the child payment as if it is the end of the process. I know that that is not what the First Minister believes but I am afraid that too many in this place just talk about the game- changing child payment and then do not go on to the rest of it. That payment should be the bridge to the further changes that we require to make sure that we are not back here in another 10 years or 20 years. We need to deal with the root causes.”
“However, we have a collective responsibility to accept that we have not really nudged the dial that much. The targets are breathing down our necks. We are supposed to be meeting the interim target now, but we are nowhere near getting it down to 18 per cent. Of course, with the child payment, we have made some progress, but we are supposed to bring it down to 10 per cent by 2030 and it is around the mid-20s just now. We have a huge way to go and my fear is that we are not really focusing on long-term, lasting solutions. I am supportive of the child payment—do not get me wrong about that. It is important that we see a direct impact today on children when we go around our constituencies. I do not want children to wait a day longer in poverty.”
“In 2017, the Scottish Government set a legally binding target of bringing down the level to 10 per cent by 2030. It is due to our collective failure that, over those 25 years, although there have been fluctuations, the level of child poverty is broadly the same as it was when we started that programme. Of course, over time, the level has changed because of a variety of factors. From the recession to financial restrictions, and from the pandemic to the energy crisis, we can point to a whole load of reasons that have influenced it. A variety of approaches have followed from the political persuasions of those in Government, whether here or at Westminster—the Liberal Democrats and Labour, from that time, or the Conservatives, Lib Dems and the SNP. There have been fluctuations because of all those factors.”
“It breaks me every time that I see symptoms of the fact that a child is living in poverty. Many of us will have seen those when we do our weekly door knocking or advice surgeries: a cold, damp home; clear signs of hunger and desperation; the fact that such children are deprived of the opportunities that others are afforded quite easily; drug or alcohol misuse, which disrupts families and causes enormous damage; and signs of poor health in young people that last for the rest of their lives. That is why the issue of child poverty is really important. It is not so much a political issue as one of human rights and child rights. There has been consensus on that all the way from the beginning of the Parliament. Back in 1999, Wendy Alexander set an ambition to defeat child poverty within a generation.”
“I move, That the Parliament notes the investments outlined in the draft Scottish Budget for 2025-26 that focus on eradicating child poverty as a national mission and the single greatest priority for the Scottish Government, including continued investment in key policies such as funded early learning and childcare, concessionary travel for those under 22, employability services and social security; further notes increased investment in the Affordable Housing Supply Programme and investment in breakfast clubs and to support the expansion of free school meals; recognises that the Scottish Government’s efforts to tackle child poverty are being undermined by the social security policies of the UK Government; welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment to spend £3 million to develop the systems to deliver the mitigation of the two-child cap in 2026; acknowledges analysis from the Child Poverty Action Group estimating that abolishing the two-child limit could lift 15,000 children in Scotland out of poverty; recognises that the measures in the draft Scottish Budget 2025-26 will help to drive progress towards this national mission, and calls on the UK Government to match the ambition of the Scottish Government and abolish the two-child limit and benefit cap at the earliest possible opportunity.”
“I invite members of the Parliament, regardless of their politics and views on other questions, to recognise that at the heart of the budget is the most ambitious set of measures that we can put in place to eradicate child poverty with the resources that are available to us. If we are all going to be true to our commitment in legislation to eradicate child poverty, I invite members of the Parliament in all political parties to support the budget and to do everything that we can to eradicate child poverty.”
“The draft budget for 2025-26 prioritises wide- ranging action to eradicate child poverty now and in the future. It is a statement of our intent to deliver real and lasting progress for the children and families of Scotland. It is a budget of delivery and hope. To address points that Mr Rennie has just put to me, I note that I am acutely aware that the Government operates in a minority position. However, the whole Parliament has supported legislation that puts in place targets to significantly reduce child poverty. We need to reach parliamentary agreement to enable us to make progress on those objectives and legislative requirements.”
“Everyone in the chamber knows my preferred solution to that challenge: as an independent country, we should be able to take these decisions and have the economic and fiscal levers that other Governments should be exercising to tackle inequalities. However, where those actions are not undertaken, we will do all that we can with the measures that we have in place to address the issue. In the coming financial year, we will commit £3 million to develop systems to mitigate the two-child cap in 2026. That is alongside other investments that we are making to mitigate United Kingdom Government policies such as the bedroom tax— policies that should have been removed by a Labour Government but which continue to be a burden. This Government will stand alongside the people who need its support in addressing the impacts of child poverty.”
“The contribution of Mr Rennie and his colleagues will be welcome in that process. Just for the record, despite what may be said on “Good Morning Scotland”, I will wait until I hear from the Presiding Officer that the Budget (Scotland) Bill has been passed at stage 3 before I will rest easy on such questions. One of the key elements of the Government’s budget is about maximising the interventions and actions that we can take to eradicate child poverty. One of the proposals that we have brought forward with determination is to take steps to remove the two-child limit, which has been a pernicious attack on some of the most vulnerable in our society. Analysis from the Child Poverty Action Group estimates that abolishing the two-child cap in Scotland could lift 15,000 children out of poverty.”
“The First Minister is setting out what is in the draft budget, but he knows from today’s announcement that he will get that budget through. I am interested in whether the discussions now stop and in whether the First Minister’s door is open, as we have many more ideas that we would like to include in the budget. What is his position now regarding discussion about the budget? The First Minister: I take nothing for granted about the budget process. The discussions that have been constructively engaged in by the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, the Labour Party, Alba and the Conservatives will continue so as to ensure that there is a parliamentary majority for the budget. I am interested in taking as many members of the Parliament with me as possible in putting in place a unifying budget that will meet the needs of the people of Scotland.”