by Niall Christie

Scotland editor

FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon was told that her government must do more to alleviate child poverty yesterday, amid calls to increase the Scottish Child Payment later this year. 

The SNP leader faced questions about her party’s plans beyond May’s elections in the Scottish Parliament, with opposition MSPs questioning whether the government’s actions were “enough” to tackle the financial pressures on Scotland’s most vulnerable. 

Parliamentary co-leader of the Scottish Greens Alison Johnstone said that child poverty targets need action, with the pandemic hitting poorest families the hardest, before describing the Tory government’s decision at Westminster to scrap the £20 uplift in universal credit as “callous.”

Ms Johnstone asked whether Ms Sturgeon would commit to increasing the Scottish Child Payment at the “earliest opportunity.” 

Ms Sturgeon said that Scotland should not have to face the challenges of supporting poor families “with one hand tied behind its back,” and that plans would be laid out in the coming weeks. 

The SNP leader said that Scotland was the only part of Britain paying a child payment of this kind, which gives families £10 per week, putting extra money in families’ pockets. 

The First Minister also faced questions over whether she would support calls for a fatal accident inquiry into the death of a child cancer patient. 

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar raised the case of Milly Main, who was in remission before contracting an infection at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in 2017, and whose family was not told about its link to contaminated water problems at the hospital.

Mr Sarwar said that this was just one of the “huge challenges our country was facing, even before Covid,” with Ms Sturgeon saying that she understood and sympathised with the demand.