CHILD POVERTY rates remain at the same “scandalous” level as when the SNP swept to power nearly sixteen years ago.

New figures show one in four children remain in poverty while “persistent” deprivation is gradually on the rise.

Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy said: “The SNP’s failure to tackle poverty is a shameful blight on their record in government.

“A single person in poverty is one too many and a single day spent in poverty is a day too many – but the SNP seem content to let things stall at these devastating levels.

“It’s clear both of our governments have failed miserably to protect people from the cost of living crisis, squandering the legacy of the last Labour government.”

The unwelcome statistics were published on Nicola Sturgeon’s final day as First Minister at Holyrood.

Sturgeon cited poverty reduction as a key Government policy, but the numbers show tiny reductions in deprivation

They show 24 per cent of children living in Scotland were in relative poverty, after housing costs, between 2019 and 2022.

Although the figure has fluctuated in recent years, the proportion was exactly the same between 2007 and 2010.

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