Nasty truth about Ruth’s Tory values

HIDDEN in the small print of George Osborne’s Summer 2015 budget was a clause about limiting tax credits to two children.

There were to be exceptions where tax credit could be claimed for a third child. But a woman who had a third child conceived through rape would have to prove the act took place before becoming eligible for support.

It was a cruel calculation designed to tighten the social security budget and it had the result of merely emphasising the callousness of the Tory cuts regime.

SNP MP Alison Thewliss spotted the nefarious paragraph in the budget red book and immediately began her honourable campaign to repeal the rape clause.

Last week, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale went public on her support for the Thewliss campaign.

Now Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has been left exposed as equally contemptible as her colleagues down south.

Previously, she has made a decent job of tap dancing around the ideological excesses of Westminster Tories.

Not this time. In fact, she endorsed the rape clause as “sensitive”.

Not normally shy of appearing for a soundbite in front of TV cameras, Davidson has been posted absent in person.

Instead, she has hidden behind press statements rather than front up herself.

The rape clause, roundly condemned by women’s groups and professional organisations, is immoral and unnecessary.