THE Scottish Secretary has admitted he does not personally know anyone who is going to be affected by the cut to Universal Credit.
Alister Jack made the comment ahead of the withdrawal of the £20-a-week uplift, which charities have described as a "lifeline".
The UK Government introduced the uplift to help with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and ministers argue it was always intended to be temporary.
It officially ends tomorrow, despite widespread calls for it to be made permanent.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon previously said pushing ahead with the cut would expose "an absence of basic humanity and moral compass".
Last month, she said the only conclusion it will be possible to reach if Boris Johnson goes ahead with the move is that he "simply has no shame".
Official figures show there are 6,568 households on Universal Credit in Mr Jack's Dumfries and Galloway constituency.
At the Tory conference in Manchester, STV's Westminster Correspondent Kathryn Samson asked Mr Jack how many people he knows who are on Universal Credit.
He said: "Well, I've got constituents on Universal Credit, I do case work for them."
Pushed on how many people he knows personally, he said: "I - not to my - no."
Asked if he has been lobbied by Tory MSPs to keep the uplift, Mr Jack said: "We've had meetings about it, and we all understand that the plan for jobs that the Chancellor is bringing forward, we believe is the right decision."
SNP MSP Neil Gray said: "Given the cluelessness the Tories have shown about the reality for families on Universal Credit, it’s not surprisingly that Alister Jack has admitted he doesn’t know anyone receiving it.
"If the Tories don’t understand the devastating impact that ripping £20 a week away from thousands of families across the country will have then they should listen to all of the charities, all of the experts and all of the devolved governments who do - and are urging them all to cancel the cut."
Elsewhere, Mr Jack suggested a second independence referendum should only be triggered if a "generation" has passed and polls show support for another vote at 60 per cent for over 12 months, or support for independence at 60% for over 12 months.
He previously suggested 60% support for another referendum sustained "over a reasonably long period" would be enough, with no mention of a generation passing.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel