Top Tory: Rape clause is awkward
SCOTTISH Tory deputy leader Jackson Carlaw yesterday branded his party’s so-called rape clause policy “awkward”.
Recent changes now require a mother seeking child tax credit for a third or subsequent child to prove she was sexually assaulted or the child was conceived in an abusive relationship.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland, Carlaw said the Government had decided exemptions should be made to the “twochild” limit in consultation with other parties.
He added: “Multiple births was one of them, children adopted from care was another and also any child that was born as the result of non-consensual sex.
“We think that it’s right that benefit should be attached but I accept it’s an awkward policy.”
SNP MP Angus Robertson called the policy “heinous”.