No party leaders agreed to take part in hustings

Scotland’s biggest children’s charity has slammed political parties for their lack of vision to tackle child poverty ahead of the UK election.  

Aberlour said no party has outlined ways to tackle the scourge of child poverty that affects one in four children in Scotland and one in three across the rest of the UK.

The call comes as the charity hosted a young people’s hustings at Glasgow Science Centre on Monday (17 June).

The hustings saw representatives from all main political parties grilled by young people on topics such as child poverty, housing and education. 

The event was initially hoped to be a leadership hustings but no party leader agreed to take part.

Aberlour CEO SallyAnn Kelly said: “Child poverty and the consequences from it, which limit and deny opportunities to the children affected, is a national crisis. Yet, during this election campaign it seems that the scale of the crisis has not been appreciated by all the main political parties. 

"One in four children in Scotland are growing up in poverty. Across the rest of the UK that figure is nearly one in three.

"Yet, watching this general election campaign unfold you wouldn’t know we had a child poverty crisis. It has barely registered as an issue worth discussing by the main political parties. This has deeply disappointed us at Aberlour.

“Our young people will today ask questions of politicians. We hope that they will offer more than what has been proposed in this election so far.”

Kelly said too many young people are suffering because of government inaction and need policies, action and investment.

Organisations such as Child Poverty Action Group Scotland and Includem took part in the hustings with around 40 young people in attendance.