MP calls for Chancellor to suspend ESA changes in the Autumn Statement

Gavin Newlands, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, joined calls from the First Minister and SNP colleagues at Westminster for the Chancellor to take the opportunity in his Autumn Statement to suspend proposed changes to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The current proposal would cut £30 a week from the support given to sick and disabled people in the ESA work-related activity group.

His comments follow a backbench business debate on the reductions to ESA and Universal Credit led by the SNP’s Neil Gray MP. His debate motion gained support from across the political divide including from Labour and Conservative MPs.

Gavin Newlands said:

“My SNP colleagues and I have consistently opposed the UK Government’s proposals to cut £30 a week from the support given to sick and disabled people in the ESA work-related activity group and the equivalent group within Universal Credit.

“When the Prime Minister came into office, she said that she is anxious to help people who are ‘just managing’. These proposed cuts to ESA will impact on many of the most vulnerable people in society, so now is her chance to put that into action.

“The group of people this cut concerns are in many respects are not even ‘just managing’.

“So I would hope that the Chancellor takes the opportunity to suspend these changes when he’s making decisions on next week’s Autumn Statement.”