Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kirsty McNeill and Ben Lake

Wednesday 22nd October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

7. What recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on fiscal steps to reduce the cost of living in Scotland.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Kirsty McNeill)]

This Government are working tirelessly to reduce the cost of living in Scotland. We have introduced a national living wage, delivered a generational upgrade to workers’ rights and helped the Bank of England to cut interest rates five times, putting money into people’s pockets across Scotland. Furthermore, thanks to our stewardship, the International Monetary Fund forecasts the UK to be the second-fastest growing G7 economy this year.

[Ben Lake]

Scotland is the only part of the United Kingdom where child poverty is falling, and it is also the only part of Great Britain with a non-Labour Government. I am sure the Minister agrees that the rest of the UK deserves better, so will she be calling on the Chancellor to scrap the two-child cap in the upcoming Budget?

[Kirsty McNeill]

A child poverty strategy is on the way and will be released in due course. I can underscore our commitment to fighting child poverty with every breath we have. That is what Labour Governments have always done, and it is what this Labour Government will do, too.