THE Tories have been challenged to offer “any more equally useless advice” after Cabinet members offered insulting advice to hard-up families such as buying own brand food and working more hours to beat the cost-of-living crisis.
Mhairi Black launched a furious attack on the Government over the crisis, which has seen inflation soar to a 40 year high and the country facing the biggest fall in living standards since the 1950s.
She said: “The Defra Secretary advised people in poverty to buy value products. The safeguarding minister suggested that people should just work more hours, or get a better-paid job.
“The Chancellor said it would be ‘silly’ to help people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
“Does the minister have any equally useless advice to add to that of his colleagues, for the people facing destitution?”
WATCH as SNP MP Mhairi Black calls out the Tories’ ‘useless’ advice to those struggling with the cost of living crisis 👏 pic.twitter.com/CennbEm1fB
— The National (@ScotNational) May 18, 2022
The fiery exchange took place during Scottish questions in Westminster on Wednesday and saw Scotland office minister Iain Stewart make the “untrue” claim that Scots face higher taxes than those in the rest of the UK.
Black added: “The Scottish Government already spent £1 billion mitigating the worst of Tory cuts.
“We’re investing £770m per year, in the cost-of-living crisis, we’re increasing Scottish benefits by 6%, doubling the Scottish Child Payment, mitigating the bedroom tax.
“Does he not agree that it’s about time his department lifted a finger?”
Stewart responded by claiming the Scotland Office was “providing the Scottish Government with a record level of support”, saying Holyrood had received £41bn from the Westminster department.
He added: “That is helping them deliver the policies she refers to. They might be able to do more if they hadn’t wasted hundreds of millions of pounds on ferries that don’t work or the First Minister on an independence revival tour of the United States.”
