Tomorrow’s debate on child poverty coincides with save the Children’s campaign to end child poverty and their proposals for child seasonal grants, which would help the poorest families at difficult times of the year.

Last week Sandra White called on the Scottish Executive to work with the UK government to implement the seasonal grant and to prioritise the needs of the poorest families.

“While I welcome a debate I have added an amendment to the motion being debated today because I believe any progress we’ve made is being wiped out by the huge increases in people’s gas and electric bills,” Sandra said.

“Something’s clearly wrong when Scottish power’s profits go up by over 75% at the same time as people’s bills have nearly doubled. Communities Scotland has said that a 5% rise in fuel price leads to 30,000 more fuel poor homes. Something’s got to be done about this and the British Government’s doing nothing so it’s up to the Scottish Parliament to take the lead once again”

The much criticised rise in profits comes at a time when Scottish Power looks set to be swallowed up by Spanish giant Iberdrola raising fears of job losses in Glasgow and worries for the Scottish economy.

“I want the Parliament to look into this takeover, something which affects Scotland should be decided in Scotland and I’ll be raising this at Tomorrow’s debate. I’ll be fighting for the Executive to get the grant introduced but also pushing for discounted tariffs for the most vulnerable.”

“Although I support these measures there’s no better solution than providing decent jobs with decent wages to get people out of poverty and this is the direction we need to head in” Sandra added.