The Scottish Secretary has said the UK Government is still working to reform the “utterly broken” welfare system, following the substantial concessions made in Parliament earlier this week.
Ian Murray also said the Cabinet is in a “resolved” mood following the tearful appearance of Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the House of Commons.
Mr Murray, a former publican, visited Belhaven Brewery in East Lothian on Thursday – where he poured a pint which then had his face imprinted on the foam by a machine at the bar.
Speaking almost a year on from Labour’s general election win, Mr Murray said his party had achieved “a lot”, adding: “We’ve had 30 Bills through Parliament, the most that have ever been passed in the history of a new government.
“We’ve given 200,000 Scots the biggest pay rise, we’ve been able to set up GB Energy, we’ve stabilised the economy.”
On Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer’s Government was forced into a last-minute climbdown in order for welfare legislation to pass its first parliamentary hurdle.
Ministers shelved plans to restrict eligibility for the personal independence payment (Pip), with any changes now only coming after a review of the benefit.
These changes are expected to put pressure on other parts of the Government’s finances.
Mr Murray said “everybody agrees” the welfare system needs reform and too many people are “locked out of the workplace because of the way the welfare system works”.
He said the Timms review would examine the Pip system and the Government is confident the “journey” of reform would continue.
Pressed on whether substantial parts of the reform had been dropped, he said: “A thousand people a day are going into personal independence payments, that’s 371,000 a year.
“That’s completely unsustainable.”
He added: “This whole system is completely and utterly broken and it’s unsustainable and that’s what we’re trying to resolve.
“The one thing that unites everybody in this debate is the fact they know the system is broken and it has to be reformed.”
The Scottish Secretary was asked if the Chancellor’s Budget choices would affect the devolved Scottish Government budget, with Mr Murray noting the Spending Review had given Edinburgh a further £9.1 billion over two years.
He said: “The Budget will be set in October as it is in any budget.
“Of course, with things fluctuating so quickly, we wouldn’t speculate now what would happen then, because things can change so quickly.
“But we’ve already said there’d be no change to the Scottish Government’s budget.”
Mr Murray said the mood in Cabinet is “one of resolve” following Ms Reeves’ appearance in the Commons and markets had responded positively to the Prime Minister’s show of support in her.
