A SCOTTISH Labour MP has been slammed after telling a constituent he is “proud” of the UK Government’s attempts to get people off benefits.
Glasgow South MP Gordon McKee faced criticism after giving a lengthy defence of cuts to welfare, in an email seen by The National.
The backbencher insisted that Labour would rescue the “broken” benefits system “from the jaws of Tory callousness and mismanagement”.
It comes after Labour unveiled plans to cut £5 billion from the social security budget, mainly through making it harder to claim disability support payments for people in and out of work.
McKee wrote: “Many sick and disabled people want to work, and they deserve the same choices and chances as everyone else to do so. Instead, the Conservatives wrote off hundreds of thousands of people and blamed them for an unsustainable rising benefits bill.
“I’m proud that the government is already tackling the drivers of people being out of work and supporting people into good jobs.
"We’re investing an additional £26 billion in the NHS to drive down waiting lists, making work pay with our landmark Employment Rights Bill, and introducing the biggest reforms to employment support in a generation, with our £240 million get Britain working plan.”
He also praised the Government’s plans to give people on long-term sickness and disability benefits the “right to try” employment, which Labour say will change the status quo where people who feel they could work do not try for fear of losing all their income.
Elsewhere, he said that ending the Work Capability Assessment meant “dignity [for] claimants and reducing red tape in the welfare system”.
Ellie Gomersall, the Glasgow Greens’ campaigns manager, said that Labour were correct to say the benefits system was “broken”, adding: “But slashing support from some of the most vulnerable people in the country is the complete opposite approach to what we need.”
She described the current process for applying for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) – which are being replaced in Scotland by Adult Disability Payments (ADP) – as “dehumanising and impossible to navigate”.
“Slashing PIP will plunge even more disabled people into poverty and shows the total lack of empathy held by this rotten Labour government,” Gomersall (below) added.
“Billionaires hold more wealth in the UK than ever before, but Labour is instead choosing to punish pensioners, the poor and now disabled people.
“By supporting these reforms, McKee is siding with the ultra-rich elite over the ordinary working-class Glaswegians he's supposed to represent.”
McKee said: “The welfare system created by the Tories over the last 14 years does not work for anyone with millions of people written off.
“The Labour Government is changing that by investing an extra £1bn in programs to help people get into work and developing skills, while protecting those who can never work.
“We are scrapping the hated Work Capability Assessment, introducing a ‘right to try’ so people don’t lose out by trying to get a job and supporting employers to recruit and retain disabled people through our keep Britain working review.
“It is a scandal that over 100,000 Scots have been stuck on an NHS waiting list for over a year and 1 in 10 young Scots are out of work due to long term illness. Unlike others, we are determined to help those young people.”
