Fury as MSP urges poor to cut family size
A SENIOR Conservative MSP caused outrage after claiming Scottish benefit claimants should limit the number of children they have.
Michelle Ballantyne told colleagues at Holyrood that those out of work ‘cannot have as many children as they like’.
The Tory social security spokesman said it was ‘fair’ to place a cap on family size as many people in employment were forced to make tough decisions in a bid to ‘pay their way’.
Mother-of-six Mrs Ballantyne later defended her comments and refused to apologise despite receiving a fierce reaction from opponents in the Scottish parliament chamber.
She admitted that she had claimed tax credits and child benefit previously. Mrs Ballantyne was speaking in a debate on inequality in Scotland and said that the UK Government’s Universal Credit roll-out was a ‘key part of reducing inequality in this country’.
But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described its roll-out as an ‘unfolding disaster’.
The introduction of the two-child benefit cap, limiting tax credits and Universal Credit to a family’s first two children, was also attacked.
Mrs Ballantyne said: ‘The two-child limit is about fairness. It is fair that people on benefit cannot have as many children as they like while people who work and pay their way and don’t claim benefits have to make decisions about the number of children they can have.
‘Regardless of what others may say, it’s a fact that Universal Credit is working for the many.’
Asked what she believes is the right number of children for the poor, Mrs Ballantyne said: ‘I don’t think there is a right number.’
Nationalist MSP Tom Arthur said the speech was ‘six minutes of pompous, Victorian moralising that would have been better suited to the pages of a Dickens novel’, and added: ‘She should be utterly, utterly ashamed of herself.’
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: ‘These comments by Mrs Ballantyne are abhorrent and show the true views held by senior Tory MSPs – nasty and archaic.’