Michael Marra to force child poverty vote on first Holyrood day as Scottish Labour leader

The North East MSP has lodged an amendment calling for the Scottish Parliament to recommit to its target to keep relative child poverty should be below 10 per cent by 2030-31.

This summer the SNP government revealed it would be “reviewing” child poverty targets, amid warnings that the current legal targets are likely to be missed.

The legally-binding targets were unanimously agreed by the Scottish Parliament in 2017. But organisations such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the IFS have warned that the targets are likely to be missed.

Mr Marra has already contacted SNP First Minister John Swinney and other party leaders seeking to set up a cross-party commission on the subject.

Read more: ‘Marra will need to clearly spell out his vision to the people of Scotland‘

The new Scottish Labour leader said: “We have not only a legal but a moral duty to make tackling child poverty a national priority.

“It is not good enough to point fingers or argue about blame while hundreds of thousands of children are being let down.

“We cannot fail another generation of children with dither and delays.

“I am urging parties across the Scottish Parliament to take this opportunity to recommit to our legal targets and agree that we will come together to set out proposals to deliver on them.

“We still have three years to meet these targets and we owe it to the next generation to work together to do that.”

Read more: Michael Marra vows to put education at the heart of Scottish politics

The most recent data estimates that 21 per cent of children (210,000 children each year) were living in relative poverty after housing costs between 2022 and 2025.

Mr Marra became Scottish Labour leader on Saturday after beating Joe Fagan.

He said on Monday that it will be a “long-term challenge” for the party to regain support. Labour has lost MSPs at every election since the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, dropping to just 17 in May.

Mr Marra said that the council elections next year will be important for Scottish Labour.

He said: “I believe that the more Labour councillors we can get, the better it’s going to be for Scotland. That I’ll be continuing to push that. But we do have to recognise that now we have six-party politics in three-member wards.

He continued: “That means that the established parties are all going to be challenged by that situation, but I feel really positive about the kind of the record where we have been in government, in local government, to actually deliver people’s priorities locally.”

He added: “It’s a long-term challenge to make sure that we genuinely refound the Labour party right across Scotland and communities, and that’s the kind of cultural change and political change that is going to be bear fruit in the long term.”

Mr Marra said he is willing to work with the Scottish Government to make changes.

He said: “In the first 48 hours, I put child poverty right into the First Minister to get a cross-party commissioner on child poverty.

“It is the first action I took, and it’s why today we’re pushing on trying to get education back at the heart of Scottish politics because those are Labour values, but I also believe they’re Scottish values.

“And that’s why I think it’s absolutely critical this work will be going forward in the Labour Party puts its best face to the public, but genuinely engages with them.”

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said:

“The Scottish Government is entirely committed to meeting our statutory targets and ending child poverty in Scotland.

“As part of that commitment we are reviewing the types of targets we use, in consultation with key stakeholders, to make sure our legislation drives the right decisions and captures the Scottish Government full breadth of activity – including, as an example, our childcare offer.

“This is alongside over £40 million to help improve access to transport and skills for parents, while continuing to offer the game-changing Scottish Child Payment, with our policies combining to keep an estimated 100,000 children out of relative poverty this year.

“The First Minister has already said that he is always open to additional ideas and welcomes Mr Marra’s commitment to work together on this. They held an initial discussion over the weekend, and the First Minister has invited a further meeting to progress discussions. I hope that the UK Government matches our ambition by introducing statutory targets to drive their own progress – while matching, at long last, the Scottish Child Payment.”