Westminster and Holyrood reports

The Voice has often carried reports on goings-on in Westminster from Katy Clark, our previous MP. We have asked Patricia Gibson, our new MP from the SNP, to continue this tradition. Patricia is a teacher  of English and has been an active SNP member for 17 years. During that time she served as a councillor and for five years was SNP spokesperson in Scotland’s largest education authority. This is her first report.

I am delighted to have been asked to contribute a short piece to Voice for Arran this month. After almost three months as the new MP for Ayrshire & Arran, there is much to share and I will do my best to offer a brief insight into what has been happening during that time.

The first weeks following the election were a complete melée. Scrabbling for office space, completing security screening, setting up communications, being sworn in and giving my maiden speech were all crammed in to a few short weeks.

I am pleased to say that, with my constituency office in Ardrossan now open and email and phone lines installed, I am starting to make headway with the great amount of enquiries which have been sent to me by constituents.

Earlier this month, we also saw the first exclusively Tory Budget for 18 years. The true impact it will have on families in North Ayrshire & Arran and across Scotland is becoming disturbingly clear. For many households, particularly those with children, the benefits of the minimum wage increase and income tax changes are eroded by the cuts to tax credits changes.

There will be a freeze on working age benefits for four years, public sector workers will see a rise of just 1% over that period – regardless of inflation – cuts to Employment Support Allowance will mean new claimants lose out on £30 a week and people claiming tax credits will be limited to claiming for two children from April 2017.

George Osborne’s so-called ‘national living wage’ of £7.20 is nothing of the sort, especially when you consider the Living Wage – as used by the Scottish Government – is £7.85! Although an improvement on the minimum wage, it will not offset cuts to tax credits of up to £3,000 per family and will not apply to those aged under 25.

In recent weeks SNP members have taken the UK government to task on a series of issues important to people in Scotland.

The SNP is pressing the Treasury to look again at exempting Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service from a continuing VAT anomaly. Police Scotland is the only police authority in the UK unable to recover VAT and is liable to an annual cost of around £23 million. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is similarly disadvantaged, and is liable for an annual cost of around £10 million.

Unlocking these resources would improve the effectiveness of our Police and Fire service at a time when Scotland’s budget is under increasing attack and I am hopeful that we can make progress on this in the weeks ahead.

With the Westminster now in recess, I look forward to spending my time in the constituency, meeting residents and local community groups. I am certainly looking forward to my next visit to Arran.