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Exclusive Scotland can ‘design’ poverty out of its economy, MSPs to hear

POVERTY can be “designed” out of Scotland’s economy if there is the political will to forge a fairer future, MSPs will hear tomorrow.

Leading a cross-party debate to mark Challenge Poverty Week, Labour MSP Elaine Smith will call on colleagues to back “significant interventions” to alleviate economic injustice.

“We must respond to the immediate problem, but we also need a fundamental shift in social policy to ensure the eradication of poverty and inequality,” Ms Smith, who is Labour’s front-bench spokeswoman on the eradication of poverty, is expected to say in the Holyrood chamber.

“The economy we have today was designed. It is the result of a set of decisions that were made about our society's priorities and resources. 

“Just as it was designed, we can redesign it so it works for everyone.”

Ms Smith will praise the work of faith groups for “providing support and assistance to those in need,” but she will go on to stress: “It’s not good enough in 21st century Scotland for those in poverty to have to depend on Victorian-style Christian charity.”

The debate follows a recent report published by the Institute for Public Policy Research, with backing from Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, which said a shake-up was needed on the scale of Labour’s postwar reforms and Margaret Thatcher’s neoliberal revolution in the 1980s.

Ms Smith will call for “a future where the gap between the richest and the poorest in our society is no longer extreme,” saying: “The question is, can we do this, as a parliament, as a government, as a country?

“The answer has to be: ‘Aye, we can’ but only if we recognise that significant interventions are needed to properly challenge poverty.”

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