The issue of welfare benefits sanctions returns to the front today. for the Second time this week the Scottish National Party are setting the Agenda. By coincidence and some good fortune in the ballot in the week that it was their turn to choose the Opposition day debates on Wednesday today the youngest member of the House Scottish National MP Mhairi Black is bringing forward a Bill to change the law relating to the sanctions applied to those who fail to comply with their claimant commitments when they are looking for work.
There is already a huge amount of guidance given to those who have to decide whether someone has a genuine reason for non-compliance. These decision makers have to consider every case on its merits and then within the guidance they use their common sense and discretion. In my view the Bill would make the system so complicated and drawn out that the system would become almost worthless as a means of ensuring compliance with the rules and I will be opposing it.
David Nuttall 
Why wouldn’t you confirm or deny it when asked?
Hi David – did you get my reply? Here it is again….I will repeat my first question as you seem to have misread it: “did you feel you were speaking for the majority of benefits claimants when you heckled the speaker saying that claimants would be “terrified they might get a job”? I stand corrected about your contribution to filibustering – but Mhairi Black has stated “It was clear that the Tories were orchestrating a campaign to talk out the Bill”. What did you know of this campaign?
Your opposition to the bill is clear. But could you clarify a couple of things for readers? In presenting your opposition did you feel you were speaking for the majority of benefits claimants when you heckled the speaker saying that claimants would be “terrified they might get a job”? Is that what you really think? And if so, why did you not repeat the phrase when asked? More importantly though, why did you, and others in your party filibuster, thus preventing a vote on the bill? Do you consider this a sincere and decent democratic technique for opposing a bill?
Dear Tom,
It was the proposer of the BIll who said people were terrified of going to the Job entre not me. I have never met someone who has said they were terrified of going to the JobCentre. On the issue of the debate itself neither the promoter of the Bill or the SNP even tried to close the debate and have a vote. I do not know how you can even suggest that I ‘filibustered’ the Bill when as a matter of fact I did not even get called to speak!
David
I will repeat my first question as you seem to have misread it: “did you feel you were speaking for the majority of benefits claimants when you heckled the speaker saying that claimants would be “terrified they might get a job”? I stand corrected about your contribution to filibustering – but Mhairi Black has stated “It was clear that the Tories were orchestrating a campaign to talk out the Bill”. Why would she say this?
I was asking what it was they were terrified of. It was the proposer who said people were terrified. I have never met anyone who said they were terrified so I think I was speaking for the majority! Considering the SNP spoke for that long that there were many on our side who did not even get a chance to speak it is ridiculous to suggest there was any attempt to stop the Bill being voted on.
David, you replied to my second question, and then appear to have deleted both my second question and your reply from the publics view. This seems like very cowardly and odd behaviour! Is it because you failed to tell the truth on the matter both the first and the second time!?
David, just be honest with yourself ! Your opinions are more in line with UKIP, in fact your to the right of UKIP. Stand as a UKIP MP next time, your an utter disgrace to hard working people of Bury with your extreme right wing views and not representative of the vast majority of working people in fact you would have made an excellent Waffen SS officer in Hitler’s Germany.
Can you give me any examples of what supposedly ‘extreme right-wing views’ I am supposed to hold? It seems to me that those with left of centre views now routinely caricature anyone who disagrees with them as being ‘extreme right wing’!
David
Tory MP David Nuttall suggests the reason benefit claimants find the process so stressful is they are “terrified they might get a job”.