Sturgeon tells SNP candidates they can help to ‘lock austerity out’
ByKieran Andrews
Nicola Sturgeon with Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie (left) and deputy first minister John Swinney.
Nicola Sturgeon was in Perth on Sunday to tell the SNP’s general election candidates it is time to “lock austerity out of Westminster”.
The first minister said a group of Nationalist MPs holding the balance of power will support moves to make Budgets and welfare policy meet the standards of equality assessment as applies in the Scottish Parliament.
She pointed to a new report from the Fawcett Society. It cites House of Commons Library research to say that, since 2010, 85% of cuts to benefits, tax credits, pay and pensions have been taken from women’s incomes.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Westminster austerity has created huge new inequalities and hit women and disabled people the hardest.
“A team of SNP MPs elected in May will use their clout in a likely hung Parliament to require UK budgets and welfare policy to be subject to a proper equality assessment, similar to the much more rigorous standards we have in the Scottish Parliament, which would lock austerity out of Westminster.
“This must include restoring the equality impact assessments the Tories scrapped in 2012.”
Sturgeon tells SNP candidates they can help to ‘lock austerity out’
