Theresa May’s speech: what the Prime Minister didn’t mention

Theresa May has just given her keynote speech to the Conservative party conference in Birmingham. While the Prime Minister focussed on holding her divided government together, she failed to mention the damaging impact of their policies.

Here’s what the Prime Minister didn’t mention in her speech.

There are now four million children across the UK living in poverty and the UK is on course for the biggest increase in inequality since Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister.

By the end of the decade, Tory welfare cuts will lead to a £3.7 billion fall in social security spending by 2021 in Scotland.

According to the Resolution Foundation this will mean inequality across the UK will rise to record high not seen since the 1980s.

Theresa May’s disastrous Brexit plan could cost up to 80,000 jobs in Scotland.

Almost 750 days after the EU referendum, the chaotic UK government finally published a Brexit plan. But the inadequate and unworkable Chequers plan didn’t bring people together – it prompted more Tory infighting and was roundly rejected by the EU.

Latest research presents a stark picture of the economic shock a bad deal will have on Scotland – warning it will leave every Scot worse off by £2,300 a year, wipe out 80,000 jobs, and damage growth and business opportunities for decades.

We want to put a stop to Brexit isolation, with a Norway-style deal with the EU to protect living standards, trade and Scottish jobs. That means that if the UK is to leave the EU we must stay in the Single Market and Customs Union.

The Tories are using Brexit to make a grab for Scotland’s powers.

 

The UK EU Withdrawal Act has made a grab for Scotland’s powers. A power grab that could see our NHS opened up to privatisation by the UK government in order to get a trade deal with the United States – and the Scottish Parliament could have no say at all. That is completely unacceptable.

The roll-out of the Tories flagship welfare reform, Universal Credit, has been a disaster.

The Tories are currently rolling out Universal Credit, which will replace several working age benefits, including tax credits and housing benefit.

The evidence so far is that it is causing unnecessary hardship for families in Scotland, who are falling behind in rent payments and increasingly relying on emergency support from the Scottish Welfare Fund. The SNP support a halt in the roll-out.

 

Theresa May’s government still won’t deliver for women born in the 1950s the pensions they are due.

Women born in the 1950s were told by the UK government, with little time to plan, that they would have to continue to work until they were 65, losing years of state pension entitlement. The SNP has consistently supported the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign to right this wrong.