Gavin Newlands, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, joined calls from the First Minister and SNP colleagues at Westminster for the Chancellor to take the opportunity in his Autumn Statement to suspend proposed changes to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The current proposal would cut £30 a week from the support given to sick and disabled people in the ESA work-related activity group. His comments follow a backbench business debate on the reductions to ESA and Uni

Gavin Newlands, the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, has welcomed the UK Government’s latest embarrassing defeat at the hands of the House of Lords – stating that the government would be utterly “callous” and “morally bankrupt” to not drop the 30 per cent cuts to Employment Support Allowance for the disabled and ill. The House of Lords were considering the UK Government’s Welfare Reform and Work Bill and voted to reject the government’s proposals to cut ESA for claimant