KEIR Starmer has been urged to clear up confusion about whether a Labour government would keep the hated Bedroom Tax as new research was published showing the policy’s disproportionate impact on Scots.
Research commissioned by the SNP in Westminster showed that one in three housing benefit claimants in Scotland were hit by the policy – compared with 16% in England as of February this year.
The Scottish Government has spent £266.1 million in real terms since 2019 mitigating the Bedroom Tax, the research carried out by the House of Commons Library showed.
It raises questions for Labour over whether they will keep the policy if the party gains power at the next election, the SNP said.
Starmer faced fierce criticism, even from those usually loyal to the Labour leader, after he announced earlier this month the party would keep the punitive two-child benefit cap.
The cap limits how much parents can claim in benefits if they have more than two children.
Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie had previously compared the cap to China’s draconian former policy to limit the number of children parents were allowed to have.
Rachel Reeves, Starmer’s shadow chancellor, cast doubt on whether Labour intended to scrap the bedroom tax earlier this month.
She has cast-iron rules about what the party can promise to spend, which were agreed at a fraught meeting of the party’s national policy forum on Sunday.
David Linden, the SNP’s social justice spokesperson said: “Sir Keir Starmer must admit whether the pro-Brexit Labour Party is secretly planning to keep the Tory Bedroom Tax, which cut the incomes of almost 100,000 low-income households in Scotland last year – and more than half a million households across the UK.
"It's clearer by the day that the SNP is the only party offering real change with independence and real help with the cost of living.
“In contrast, Sunak and Starmer are lurching further to the right and taking money away from millions of households across Scotland and the UK.”
Alba’s Westminster leader Neale Hanvey echoed the call for Labour to “come clean”, saying: “If Starmer’s logic is that he won’t scrap the Tory two-child cap then it is increasingly likely that if in government, his Labour Party wouldn’t scrap the Bedroom Tax either.
“It’s time for the Labour Party to come clean, if they get into government will they scrap the Bedroom Tax or keep it?”
Labour were approached for comment.
