[Scottish] Tory MSP: Rape clause is 'fair' as it means poor have fewer kids

[Denzil_DC]

THE welfare spokeswoman for the Scottish Tories has been denounced after saying benefit curbs and a related 'rape clause' are fair because they stop the poor having as many children as people in work.

Michelle Ballantyne, a mother-of-six, was lambasted after defending the two-child limit on tax credits in a Holyrood debate on poverty and inequality.

...

The two-child limit denies some benefit to mothers with more than two children unless they declare one was the result of rape.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17005153.tory-msp-rape-clause-is-fair-as-it-means-poor-have-fewer-kids/

The exchange in question, sparked by a question from Secretary for Communities and Local Government Aileen Campbell, can be seen on Twitter (and SNP MSP Tom Arthur's response doesn't just "denounce" Ballantyne's words, it rips her a whole new 'un):

Link to tweet

Sarah Mackie @lumi_1984

Tory MSP Michelle Ballantyne's shocking contribution to the debate on austerity, poverty & inequality regarding the two-child limit, and the belter of a response from SNP MSP Tom Arthur.

(H/T: @gdog2010_john)

For those who can't view the clip, here's Aileen Campbell's reaction



and here's what Tom Arthur said (quite heatedly towards the end):

I thank the member for her intervention. The issue comes down to the fundamental point and crux of the debate—that there are two views of what this Parliament is for.

There is the view of the Labour Party, which is that it is a buffer. Alex Cole-Hamilton spoke about the Parliament having to mop up the consequences of Tory welfare reforms. That is a view and a philosophy that the Labour Party is entitled to, but it is not the view that I have. I do not want this to be the Parliament that mitigates; I want this to be the Parliament with all the powers, including powers over employment law, so that we can make sure that there is a real living wage and under 25s are not being paid the poverty national minimum wage. I want to have the full range of powers so that we can truly transform Scotland. I want the full powers so that we do not live in a country where colleagues of Michelle Ballantyne get to dictate social security policy.

I have to say that the speech from Michelle Ballantyne was one of the most disgraceful speeches that I have ever heard in my two and a half years in this Parliament—six minutes of pompous Victorian moralising that would have been better suited to the pages of a Dickens novel.

She suggests that poverty should be a barrier to a family and that people who are poor are not entitled to any more than two children—what an absolutely disgraceful position. She should be utterly, utterly ashamed of herself.

The best is yet to come - from later in the Herald article:

[Ballantyne] admitted she had claimed child benefit for each of her six children, but said she had been on an income of less than £25,000 and made sacrifices to have a large family.

Ballantyne later admitted that she didn't just claim Child Benefit, but also Tax Credits:

Link to tweet

Paul Hutcheon @paulhutcheon

Tory MSP Michelle Ballantyne has confirmed claiming tax credits and child benefit

She owns a textile mill in the Scottish Borders (whose workers' wages are no doubt also subsidized by Tax Credits), has long been a local councillor (with the additional income that brings from the public purse), and only became an MSP last year because another Tory resigned, so Ballantyne was elevated to the Scottish Parliament from her 13th place on the Tories' Regional List (after the revolution, the D'Hondt PR system really has to go ...). As an MSP, she's also eligible for free childcare.

Ballantyne didn't quite go so far as Tory MP Ben Bradley in a 2012 blog post for which he later apologized - Tory MP Ben Bradley said benefit claimants should be sterilised - but that's likely because she doesn't do joined-up thinking rather than out of any sense of humanity.