Humza Yousaf ‘gaslighting’ Scotland by claiming he is tackling poverty, homeless charity says

Humza Yousaf has been criticised for his promises to tackle Scotland’s lack of affordable housing as homelessness reaches record highs – JANE BARLOW/PA

Humza Yousaf is “gaslighting” Scotland by claiming he is tackling poverty while overseeing cuts that “condemns” thousands of children to homelessness, the head of a major charity has said.

Alison Watson, director of Shelter Scotland, said the First Minister had “no credibility” on cutting child poverty as the SNP’s Government’s 2024/25 cuts funding for affordable and social housing by nearly £200 million.

She said the 26 per cent cut “condemns 10,000 children to lives trapped in the homelessness system” and there were “glaring gaps between rhetoric and reality”. She added: “It’s flabbergasting.”

Official figures published last week found homelessness in Scotland has increased to record levels, with the number of children in temporary accommodation rising by eight per cent over the past year to 9,860.

Ms Watson also warned the housing budget cut had wiped out “any progress” achieved by the SNP’s flagship Scottish Child Payment, a weekly benefit worth £25 per child payable to poorer families.

Her accusation of “gaslighting” – a form of psychological abuse that causes the victim to question their perception of reality – came after Mr Yousaf said last week it was “utterly unacceptable that in 2024 children continue to live in poverty in Scotland”.

Shona Robison, the SNP’s finance secretary, said her Scottish Budget had been “really challenging” and blamed UK Government funding cuts for her decision to take an axe to affordable housing.

‘Ever more desparate’

But Ms Watson told the Herald on Sunday: “It’s getting ever more desperate. We deliberately describe what’s happening as a housing emergency. That’s not empty words.

“What we’re seeing is exceptional … The Government says it’s doing great things, but these are the facts and figures. That’s why I call it gaslighting.”

She added: “The First Minister has no credibility when it comes to child poverty given his budget condemns 10,000 children to lives trapped in the homelessness system.”

Promises by the SNP Government to build more social housing “look like a pipe dream” she said, and pledges to end homelessness “cannot be considered as anything but an abject failure”.

Ms Robison told BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show that the SNP Government had a “good track record” on affordable housing and was aiming to deliver 110,000 such homes by 2032.

“But with a £1.6 billion cut to capital and a 62 per cent cut to the financial transactions funding, that has an impact,” she said.

“It’s very difficult within our restrained capital resources to find where money could have been shifted but it’s the number one priority and let’s see what (the UK Spring Budget on) Wednesday brings.”

The Prime Minister used a visit to last week’s Scottish Tory conference to hint at a cut in National Insurance, describing it as a “Union tax cut” as it would apply in Scotland.

But Ms Robison urged the Chancellor not to cut taxes in the Spring Budget and instead use any spare money to increase public spending. She argued that increasing capital spending would be a more effective way of boosting growth.

Liz Smith, the Scottish Tories’ shadow finance secretary, said: “It’s ridiculous of Shona Robison to be giving the UK chancellor advice on growth, when the SNP’s dire record led to her savage tax-and-axe budget that means Scots will be paying more to receive fewer and worse services.

“It’s even more absurd for her to call for housing investment, when she has just cut Scotland’s housing budget by 26 per cent, and Shelter Scotland say the SNP are ‘gaslighting’ the public on the subject.”

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